Genius is more made than born

In 1800 Karl Witte's father, a German doctor, decided to give his son a really rich educational
environment. Karl entered the University of Leipzig at nine, and gained his PhD at fourteen! Lord
Kelvin's mother made the same decision. Her son became one of the nineteenth century's most successful
physicists. More recently in the well publicised "Edith Experiment", New Yorker Aaron Stern
determined, in 1952, to give his daughter the best environment he could devise. Classical music was a
continuous background. He talked to her in adult terms and showed her reading cards with numbers and
animals on them. Edith Stern could talk in simple sentences at one, and had read an entire volume of the
Encyclopedia Brittannica by the age of five. She was reading six books a day by age six. At twelve she
enrolled in college and was teaching higher mathematics at Michigan State University at fifteen years old. She scores 200 on a scale where 155 is genius. In England, Ruth Lawrence who passed her 'O' level maths
at nine and 'A' level at ten (normally 18) was accepted at Oxford University at twelve years of age., She
had been educated in an intellectually rich environment by her parents.
We shall be returning in a later chapter to the subject of preschool learning. We shall also be debating the
perfectly reasonable concern that no child should be 'forced' like an intellectual hot-house plant. Clearly, it
is vital that the child should become a socially well integrated adult, enjoy her childhood and never be
pressured. The point to make here, however, is that there is no question that a loving, relaxed and rich
environment during the vital formative years definitely does create a higher degree of mental capability.
And that is of undeniable benefit.
This benefit is not merely related to intellectual performance. The largest long term study of outstanding
ability was started in California by Dr. Terman. Commencing in 1925, it has followed the progress of
1000 gifted children (all above 135 I.Q.s). It has concluded, so far, that:
* Physical health and growth was above normal. * Marriage rates were average/divorce rates were below
average. * 70% graduated (7 1/2 times normal)
Society has come to be somewhat perversely suspicious of genius. Almost as if there is something rather
`unfair' about actively encouraging mental growth.
As researchers of this book, we have come to believe in all-round education. We are totally against
parents indulging their own ego's by pressurising their children to succeed. But we are equally unhappy
about the attitude of mind that prompted a Manchester mother, when she was told that her son had an I.Q.
of 167, to say ... "But he's such a nice boy."
The truth is we can indeed improve our children's ability and our own. And that is surely a challenge we
must accept.