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The Vanishing Genius: Lewis Terman and the Stanford Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Gretchen Kreuter
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Extract

The idea of genius has intrigued and baffled generations of thinkers interested in the problems of human excellence, leadership, and creativity. Until the early twentieth century, it was generally assumed that the man of genius, whatever his mode of expression, was qualitatively different from the rest of humanity—that he possessed some mysterious, inborn element that made his achievements possible. Because of the supposed mystery surrounding the origin and nature of genius, there grew up over the years a veritable mythology linking the man of genius with phenomena ranging from Deity to insanity.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 1962 , pp. 6 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © 1962, University of Pittsburgh Press 

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References

Notes

1. Terman, Lewis, The Measurement of Intelligence (New York, 1916), 12.Google Scholar

2. Wolfe, Don M. has included a chapter on “Lewis Terman and the Definition of Genius” in his book, The Image of Man in America (Dallas, 1957). His conclusions are quite different from mine. Mr. Wolfe sees the Terman study of gifted children as a significant effort at quantification of human behavior and hence as an important step toward the realization of a “science of man.” He never raises the question that is crucial to Terman's work: has the study really been measuring what it purports to measure? Mr. Wolfe has, I think, viewed the experiment statically and, as I shall show below, has ignored changes that have occurred over time—changes that cause me to doubt the validity of Terman's assumptions.Google Scholar

3. Terman, , 13.Google Scholar

4. “Commercialism: the Educator's Bugbear,” School Review, XVII (March, 1909), 195; “Education Against Nature,” Harpers Weekly LIII (Nov. 20, 1909), 17; “Pathology of School Discipline,” New England Magazine, XXXXI (Dec, 1909), 479–84; “Tragedies of Childhood,” Forum, XXXXIX (Jan., 1913), 41–47; “Precocious Children,” Forum, LII (Dec, 1914), 893–98.Google Scholar

5. Terman, Lewis, “Genius and Stupidity,” Pedagogical Seminary, XIII (June, 1906), 307.Google Scholar

6. Terman, Lewis, “New Approach to the Study of Genius,” Psychological Review, XXIX (July, 1922), 311.Google Scholar

7. Ibid., 318.Google Scholar

8. Wolfe, , whose work on Lewis Terman is cited above, ignores this confession of arbitrariness and quite erroneously says that Terman's canvassings proved that “at least one child of genius potential may be found among 250 pupils in many communities of average American citizens.” Wolfe, 374.Google Scholar

9. Among these early critics of Terman's philosophy and that of the mental testing movement as a whole are William C. Bagley, Determinism in Education (Baltimore, 1928); Wooster Curti, Margaret, “The Intelligence of Delinquents in the Light of Recent Research,” Scientific Monthly, XXII (Feb., 1926), 132–38; and Wallin, J. E. W., Problems of Sabnormality (Yonkers-on-Hudson, 1917).Google Scholar

10. Terman, Lewis and others, Mental and Physical Traits of a Thousand Gifted Children, vol. 1 in Genetic Studies of Genius (Stanford, 1925), 631–35.Google Scholar

11. Ibid., 641.Google Scholar

12. See, for example, “Bright Children Upset Notions About Genius,” New York Times (July 19, 1925), sec. 8, 14; Terman, Lewis, “The Influence of Nature and Nurture Upon Intelligence Test Scores,” Journal of Educational Pyschology, XIX (1928), 362–73; “The Possibilities and Limitations of Training,” Journal of Educational Research, XIII (1926), 371–73.Google Scholar

13. Terman, Lewis and others, Intelligence Tests and School Reorganization (Yonkers-on-Hudson, 1923), 30.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., 21.Google Scholar

15. Terman, Lewis and others, The Promise of Youth, vol. 3 in Genetic Studies of Genius (Stanford, 1930), 62, 76. Volume 2 does not concern Terman's 1,000 children but is instead a collateral study of historical geniuses made by one of Terman's associates, Catherine Cox.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., 127.Google Scholar

17. Ibid., 148.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., 480.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., 481–482.Google Scholar

20. Terman, Lewis, “Intelligence in a Changing Universe,” School and Society, LI (1940), 470.Google Scholar

21. Ibid. Google Scholar

22. Terman, Lewis and Oden, Melita, The Gifted Child Grows Up, vol. 4 in Genetic Studies of Genius (Stanford, 1947), 156.Google Scholar

23. Ibid., 208.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., 312.Google Scholar

25. See, for example, “Adventures in Stupidity,” Scientific Monthly, XIV (Jan., 1922), 24–40.Google Scholar

26. Terman, Lewis, “The Discovery and Encouragement of Talent,” American Psychologist, IX (June, 1954), 227.Google Scholar

27. Terman, and Oden, , The Gifted Child Grows Up, 358.Google Scholar

28. Terman, Lewis and Oden, Melita, The Gifted Group at Middle Life, vol. 5 in Genetic Studies of Genius (Stanford, 1955), p. 109.Google Scholar

29. Ibid., 129.Google Scholar

30. Ibid., 152.Google Scholar

31. Terman, Lewis, “Genius and Stupidity,” Pedagogical Seminary, XIII (Oct., 1906), 307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar