THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
For some years, beginning about 1918, experimentation has been sporadically undertaken in New York City on the initiative of individual principals to find out what should be done in the elementary school for highly intelligent children. It was not, however, until January, 1936, that the Board of Education itself took official action in cognizance of the presence of these pupils in the school system. On January 28, 1936, Public School 500, Manhattan (Speyer School, [3] was founded by formal action of the Board of Education and Teachers College, jointly, for the study of intellectual deviates, other than the feeble-minded, in the elementary school.
Two classes for rapid learners were included in the setup of this school, to accommodate twenty-five pupils each. These classes have now (1939) been in progress for three years. Their chief purpose has been to find experimentally and to establish a curriculum that would provide a genuine education for children of mental calibers above 130 IQ (S-B); an education that would extend their minds and interest them in the interests of society during the years of the elementary school.
Pupils were selected for this experiment on the basis of three criteria: (1) they must test at or above 130 IQ (S-B); (2) they must be at least 7 years 0 months old, and at most 9 years 6 months old; (3) they must be representative as a group of the various ethnic stocks composing the population of New York City. This constitutes what we consider a perfectly democratic selection. Nothing "counts" toward selection except the tested quality of the pupil himself.
The organization is that of an 8B elementary school, designed to run for five years as an experiment. Promotion to the ninth grade of the senior high schools at the age of 13 years was planned for our pupils. The school also includes seven classes for slow learners (IQ 75-90), the pupils of which mingle freely with those of the rapid learner classes except for purposes of classroom instruction.
The teachers were selected from a long list of applicants for the posts among licensed elementary-school teachers of New York City. Criteria for selection rested on personality, degree of education, and desire to undertake experimental work.
Enrichment of the curriculum has been going forward for three years. Pupils at and above 130 [IQ] (S-B) need, on the average, about one half of their time in the elementary school for mastering the standard curriculum set up for "all the children." "Mastering" here means not "passing" with a mark of 65 per cent, but genuine mastery with marks of 90 per cent and above.
In the half day thus left to spare, an enrichment curriculum has been pursued, which has elsewhere been described in some detail. [4] The chief features of this enrichment curriculum are a series of units, one each term in each class, on "The Evolution of Common Things" and the French language and literature.
TRANSITION FROM ELEMENTARY TO SECONDARY SCHOOL
The time comes when pupils thus selected and educated are to pass to the ninth grade of the senior high school. At this point questions arise which call urgently for discussion as a joint responsibility of both elementary and secondary schools. Some of these questions are as follows: