Date of Award

1-1933

Degree Type

Bachelors Essay

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Education

First Advisor

George E. Vander Beke

Second Advisor

William J. Grace

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the gifted. As it is to them that the world must look for progress, their identification should become the most important of all social arrangements so that they may not become corrupted by luxury or starved by poverty. This selection is most important. As general intelligence is not to be determined from external symptoms but from the quality of thinking, the most satisfactory methods of identifying the gifted are by means of those characteristics which distinguish them as a group. These characteristics may be determined through reactions in general intelligence tests and in tests for special talents. The discovery of the gifted child has led to an immediate interest in his education, but there are many problems that still remain unsolved. It might be most profitable to begin as early as possible, before the child has the opportunity of forming bad habits of learning, but so far very little has been done in the first grades or kindergartens. In the city systems, the possible advantages of special classes for superior children should be considered, inasmuch as it has been found advantageous for feeble-minded children.

Some provision has been made for rapid advancement and a broader and richer curriculum but at any rate, there is no doubt that our present system of dealing (or rather not dealing) with the gifted child is wasteful. A great amount of good intelligence lacks opportunity for development, and the modern democratic state is greatly in need of all of it.

Comments

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the College of Liberal Arts, Marquette University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Download

Share

COinS