Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development

by Leta Stetter Hollingworth

EARLY SCHOOL HISTORY

F started school at the age of 5 years 10 months, in a two-room rural school in upstate New York in the town where he was born. He could already read well at that time; it was first noticed that he could read when he was "around 5 years of age." Riding in streetcars, he would take words apart and put them together again. He had learned the letters before his third year.

At school he was received in the first grade. It was soon found that he was memorizing his reader and the teacher gave him a more advanced book. This school was a practically ungraded one; the first four grades were together in one room, and grades five to eight were in the other room. The teacher did not know what to do with F; so he was allowed to go into the second room and listen, in an orderly manner, to the fifth to eighth grades.

When he entered New York City schools at the age of 7 years 10 months, the rural teacher gave F a transfer for the fifth grade. The mother presented the letter of transfer to the Manhattan principal, who pooh-poohed the idea that the boy could belong in the fifth grade at that age. He refused to accept the recommendation from the ungraded school and placed F in the third or fourth grade. After the first week the boy's teacher reported that he did not belong in that grade. When the principal insisted that F could not go into the fifth grade, the boy himself spoke up and said if they would give him an examination they would see that he could do it. The principal ordered him to keep still and not to talk so much. He was, however, eventually placed in the fifth grade in the year in which his eighth birthday occurred. At the end of that year he was promoted to Grade 6A, then into 6B, and he was shortly after received into the Special Opportunity Class at P.S. 165.

He had always been fond of school up to this time, although he later developed a distaste for it and became a chronic truant. He spent much of his time helping the teachers, carrying books, and running errands, in order to keep occupied. When his mother requested his transfer to the Special Opportunity Class, the principal of the school he was attending, at first refused, saying that he liked to have bright pupils in his classes too. After futilely arguing for half an hour, the mother finally threatened to move to another part of town, thus forcing a transfer, whereupon the principal relented and gave the transfer. F said he liked the new school because he was allowed there to say what he thought.

In his early school years he once won a prize, which was to be a book. Several books, supposedly of interest to boys, were offered him from which to choose. He looked them over and then said if it made no difference to the teacher, he would rather have a dictionary instead. This volume was given him, and it was used constantly thereafter.

EARLY TEST SCORES

In March, 1924, at the age of 9 years 4 months, F was given a mental test, using Army Alpha, by L. M. Potter. He was then in Grade 6B, P.S. 14, Manhattan. His score was recorded as 124 points. But there is also a copy of an Army Alpha Test, Form 7, given F in the fall of 1924 upon his entrance to P.S. 165, on which the score is 163 points.

On April 14, 1924, at the age of 9 years 5 months, F was given a Stanford-Binet test by M. V. Cobb, in P.S. 165, Manhattan. His Mental Age shown at that time was 15-2, and an IQ of 162 was reported. Strength of grip measures were also recorded as of May 15, 1924. These were made by Leta S. Hollingworth, three trials for each hand. The records were (median of three), right, 10.5; left, 9.

On April 22, 1925, at the age of 10 years 5 months, F was given a Stanford-Binet examination by Leta S. Hollingworth as a demonstration before a class of 60 adults. His Mental Age was 19-0, and the IQ is recorded as "over 182, unmeasured by the scale."