CHAPTER TWELVE CHILD I
This child, a girl, was born in Palo Alto, California, June 17, 1929. She is the daughter of one of the male children studied by Terman and reported in Genetic Studies [of] Genius. She was first observed when, in September, 1937, she entered a special class for "rapid learners" established by Leta S. Hollingworth at Speyer School, P.S. 500, Manhattan. [1] This experimental group was made up of fifty children chosen from the public schools of the city on the basis of intelligence, and their range in IQ was from 130 to 200. Of these fifty selected children, Child I was one of three whose IQ's exceeded 180.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Child I's paternal grandfather was still living in 1939, aged 69. He had a Normal School education (South Dakota) and was teacher, farmer, and small-town merchant. His education was superior to that usually achieved by farm boys. His special interests were church, travel, and repair work on his own properties. He is described by his son as stubborn, thrifty, and industrious, with uncompromising attitudes toward worldliness.
I's paternal grandmother died when I's father was 9 years old. She had been a teacher of music and kindergarten, and a housewife. She was educated in a Normal School and a Conservatory of Music. She was an active leader in her community, established her own kindergarten, and was socially and musically active in local ways. Her home was in South Dakota and her father was first Land Commissioner of Dakota Territory. He had led a group of homesteaders into that region about 1860. He was politically and educationally active—Commissioner of Immigration, Commissioner of Education, in the Territory.
No mentally defective or otherwise generally incompetent relatives on the father's side are known. The great-grandmother of I, on her father's side, is said to have been a relative of Phillips Brooks.
I's maternal grandfather was born in Texas of ancestry half French-Huguenot and the rest German-English. He was a high school graduate. He was in later life a merchant and real estate operator and active in community affairs.
I's maternal grandmother was born in Oklahoma, her ancestry being French-Huguenot, Welsh, and Irish. In education she lacked a half year of completing the work for her B.A. in the University of New Mexico. After her marriage she devoted herself to her home and family. She was talented in dramatics and was active in local church, club, and lodge affairs.
Father. I's father was born March 21, 1909, in South Dakota. He is mainly of English descent. He has the degree of B.A. and also of M.A. from Stanford University, and he was a candidate for the degree of Ph.D. in Public Law in an Eastern university at the time of this inquiry. He was for eight years a college instructor, and later was connected with a government department at Washington, D. C. He has been active in his profession, has written in the field of government, and is a member of various academic societies. He was one of the 1000 children described by Terman in Genetic Studies [of] Genius. He has been self-supporting since the age of 19.
Mother. I's mother was graduated from high school in New Mexico and attended the University of Kansas for one year. She then transferred to the University of New Mexico, receiving her B.A. degree in 1930. Two years before (1928), when she was 20 years old, she married I's father, and continued her college course. After graduation she managed her home and also took some graduate courses. In high school she was class poet and in the Honor Society four years. In her college years she was active in sorority life and on publications. Her major interests were debating, dramatics, and student government. At the University of Kansas she was on the Dean's Honor Roll (1925-1926). At New Mexico she held various scholastic offices and was awarded several honors.
In more recent years I's mother has taken an active part in the League of Women Voters and in the Faculty Wives' Club in the college where her husband has been teaching.
PRESCHOOL HISTORY
The following data have been supplied by Child I's parents, who kept a baby-book record of her development:
Length of pregnancy, 8.5 months. Weight at birth, 8 pounds.
Breast fed to 2.5 months, then bottle fed to 18 months.
First teeth appeared at 5 months and first permanent teeth at
5 years. Walked alone (several steps) at 10.5 months.
Talked in short sentences at from 18 months to 2 years.
Childhood illnesses—measles, whooping cough, mumps, chicken
pox, colds.
EARLY EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
At the age of about 2 years Child I had been observed in the
Institute of Child Development (Teachers College, Columbia
University) and reported as being hyperactive and of high intelligence.
At the age of 3 or 4 years she was used as a demonstration case before a class in psychology in the University and the Mental Age of 7 was assigned to her at that time.
Shortly after, she attended a kindergarten in the neighborhood of her home where "they gave her extra work—French and dancing." She liked this school. At the age of 5 years she entered kindergarten at P.S. 193, Manhattan, for half-day sessions only, although she wished to go all day.
At the age of 6 years she was entered in the first grade at P.S. 186, Manhattan, and in the second term was "skipped" to Grade 2A. "She spent her spare time aimlessly drawing, and was allowed to bring library books to school. Some of the time she sat with folded hands when her work was finished, and she resented this."
MENTAL MEASUREMENTS
January 14, 1937, was the date of I's first examination, at the age of 7 years 7 months, and her Stanford-Binet IQ was 184.
In September, 1937, at the age of 8 years 3 months, she was given Intelligence Examination CAVD, Levels H-M. Her score was 361 points. The comment recorded by the examiner (Leta S. Hollingworth) is: "Median seventh-grade child is close to this mark." Child I had at this time just come from a school in which she had been placed in the third grade.
Records are available of several achievement tests Child I took at different dates. Representative results are to be found in two Stanford Achievement tests given in December, 1937, and in June, 1938. In the first of these she averaged an age rating of 12-3 and a grade of 6.3; in the second, her age rating was 13-5 and her grade 7.6. In six months she had advanced a year and two months in Educational Age and had made a similar advance in grade status. The following table gives the detailed results of these two examinations.
AGE AGE GRADE GRADE
SUBJECT DECEMBER, JUNE DECEMBER, JUNE,
1937 1938 1937 1938
Paragraph Meaning 13-7 15-8 7.8 9.7
Word Meaning 12-11 15-4 7.2 9.3
Dictation 9-11 11-7 4.1 5.7
Language 14-4 15-4 8.4 9.3
Literature 11-11 15-6 6.1 9.5
History and Civics 13-1 13-7 7.4 7.8
Geography 12-4 14-8 6.6 8.7
Physiology and Hygiene 12-11 13-5 7.2 7.6
Arithmetic Reasoning 11-8 11-3 5.8 5.4
Arithmetic Computation 10-5 11-0 4.4 5.1
Average score 12-2 13-5 6.5 7.8
Child I left this experimental school a year after admission, when her father was appointed to a position in another state, to which the family moved. In the new school she was placed in the fifth grade, on the ground that she might make better social adjustments there, although her achievements were clearly already better than those of average sixth-grade pupils. It is unfortunate that no follow-up of this child has been possible. Her record and the variety of her abilities were striking. She was one of the most outstanding and best-liked pupils in the group at Speyer School. In addition to her remarkable intelligence she possessed desirable supporting traits which led the teachers to predict that she might "go farther" than any other child in the selected group of fifty "rapid learners."
The fairly complete account of I's background and early development has been here provided in the hope that it may be made of use by investigators at some later time.
PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS AND HEALTH
Measurements, as of January 16, 1939, age 9 years 6 months, were as follows:
CHILD I NORM
Height 58.5 inches 52
Weight 96 pounds 61.5
Chest circumference 29 inches
Head circumference 21.1 inches
Eye color brown
Hair color dark brown
Tonsils and adenoids caused trouble in 1933 and were removed in 1934. No visual defects noted. Occasional headaches "usually from reading or remaining long periods indoors." Hearing excellent. Nutrition excellent. No symptoms of general weakness.
Parents report I to be "at least very excitable," and that she shows "impulsive actions and extreme eagerness."
No sleep difficulties; no muscular twitching; no special fears.
Sleeps nine hours, fairly soundly.
MISCELLANEOUS CHARACTERISTICS
Her superior ability was first noticed by people from the University, at 15 months, because of comprehension beyond that expected at such an age."
She is interested in music and wrote the school song at Speyer. She has been very much interested in nature study and science since her second or third year, and "in her relationship to the world and the cosmos." Has asked questions frequently concerning origins and creation.
She has shown no special interests in mechanics, drawing, or painting, but from her second year she has had active interests in recitation and in the dramatization of nursery rhymes, etc.
She has played with imaginary companions. She began making up rhymes at an early age. "She reasons logically and has a strong sense of justice."
A neatly bound volume of typed pages, prepared by I as a Christmas present, 1937, for Leta S. Hollingworth, is entitled "First Poems." There are in the collection a dozen short verses or longer poems, each dated by I's age at the time of composition. The ages range from 4.5 to 8 years. A few samples follow.
STARS
The stars are shining bright tonight
I wonder why they shine so bright
I guess to make it light at night.
Age 5 years
THE CAVE MAN
The cave man was a hunter,
A hunter brave and bold.
He wore the skins of those he killed
To keep him from the cold.
And many ages later, when he had passed away,
Men found in caves the sharpened stones
That he used every day.
Age 7 years 5 months
FLOWERS
Red and yellow tulips blooming on the lawn,
Blooming in the woodland, trampled by the fawn,
Little yellow dandelions hiding in the meadows,
Given to the cow to eat every time she bellows.
Pretty red roses upon a bush
Like a little lady bursting with a blush.
White and purple lilacs on a bush of olive green
As a birthday present were given to the queen.
Age 7 years 5 months
SEARCHING
A wandering stranger am I
I believe in nothing but the great powers of the gods,
The whole world have I searched for their wisdom.
But such wisdom found have I not.
Though I have searched the world over
Not a trace of such can be found.
I have searched on the hilltops, in the valleys—
I wonder if such things there are in this wide world of wonder.
The rocks have I broken
To find this great wisdom
But the wonderous marvels are not to be found.
Age 8 years
[1] This chapter was written by H. L. H.