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A forty year follow‐up of students who attended Leta Hollingworth's school for gifted students
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to follow‐up a group of individuals who were identified at an early age as gifted and attended an experimental enrichment program at Speyer School in New York City from 1935 to 1940. Leta Stetter Hollingworth, who was the educational advisor to these rapid learners (called Terman Classes), was the first educator to advocate enrichment as an appropriate model for gifted education in this country. Twenty‐eight of the students who attended the Terman Classes at Speyer School were located and 20 of this group completed and returned a questionnaire. From information supplied in the questionnaire, eight subjects were selected for extensive interviews based on male/female ratio, accessibility, and inclusion in Hollingworth's book, Children Above 180 IQ. The study was the result of a donation of research and documents to The University of Connecticut from the widow of Hollingworth's research assistant, James G. Thomas. This material included a follow‐up study that Thomas had begun as well as directories of the students with whom he had kept in contact. Thomas’ research is now a part of the Hollingworth Archives at The University of Connecticut.
... Second, our keen interest in the social and emotional lives of gifted children, adolescents , and adults endures. In fact, Hollingworth's insights on social and psychological adjustment from decades ago led to a follow-up study of the original attendees of her school for highly gifted children (White & Renzulli, 1987). Nonintellective variables such as intrinsic motivation, social relationships, and self-esteem appear in the modern literature with regularity. ...
Across centuries and cultures, exceptional performances and performers have intrigued scholars, practitioners, and the general
public. Whatever the domain, highlevel achievements interest people, sometimes as a model to emulate, sometimes as an area
of inquiry, sometimes as a curiosity.
Theoretically, the modern study of giftedness is related to the psychology of individual differences. In the nineteenth, twentieth,
and twenty-first centuries, the psychological constructs of intelligence, creativity, and motivation provided the foundation
for understanding giftedness. There are, however, earlier conceptions of extraordinary people and performances that have influenced
our perspectives on giftedness as well. This chapter reviews briefly the historical interest in giftedness to the nineteenth
century, shares four biographical summaries that illustrate key issues in the twentieth-century history of gifted education,
offers a review of cognitive and affective variables which have historically been used to study giftedness, and concludes
with attention to issues of particular interest to psychologists and mental health professionals.
... He did not elaborate on the adjustments, but logically they can be connected to the conflict between full self-expression and social acceptance. (Goldsmith, 1987), the diversity of the highly gifted child (McGUffog, Feiring & Lewis, 1987), a follow-up of some of Hollingworth's students (White and Renzulli, 1987), a case study of a 14-year-old college graduate (Sharkey, 1987), a review of ideas on genius (Powell, 1987), issues of guidance and counseling (Colangelo and Brower, Landrum, 1987), and double mentoring (Clasen and Hanson, 1987 Lewis (1984) suggested alternatives to acceleration for the highly gifted child. She used two case stUdies to demonstrate that acceleration is not enough for these children, and that flexible scheduling and counseling are crucial to the success of any program for these uniquely gifted children. ...
Spine title: Problems, perceptions and potentials of gifted adults. Thesis (M.S.)--California State University, Northridge, 1991. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-231).
This study investigated the family processes as a context to the development of giftedness, considering giftedness as a multidimensional phenomenon. Twelve preschool children attending the gifted program held by the Federal District public educational network and their parents (12 mothers and 9 fathers) participated in the study. The bioecological approach was adopted as the theoretical-methodological reference. The children were observed by behavioral scale at school (SRBCSS-R). Their parents answered an inventory on parental attitudes (PAAT), a questionnaire and were interviewed. Quantitative and qualitative procedures were used to analyze the data. Results indicate that there are physical, psychological and support networks incentives in the family environment. The study proposes that gifted children families have a main role in the development of giftedness so they need support services.
This study analyzed the perceived relationship between marriage and achievement among 167 able women, ages 45-65, who were alumnae at the University of Michigan. Women who perceived their husbands as supportive believed they had high potential for achievement, in part, because of the husband's support, the couple's commitment to joint family goals, and willingness to share domestic chores. Women who perceived their husbands as occasionally supportive, felt free to achieve occasionally. These women reported that greater levels of achievement were possible if they confronted their husband through negotiation, or if they developed talents that contributed to the family's income. Women felt they had low potential for achievement if they had an unsupportive spouse or worked sorely for financial gain.
Leta Stetter Hollingworth (1886–1939) was a psychologist, educator, and a feminist. An intellectual trailblazer in multiple academic disciplines, it was teaching and counseling gifted children that became her passion. The issues she identified and addressed are the very issues we continue to debate and ponder: How do we identify the gifted? Should they be accelerated and/or enriched? Should they be taught in the regular classroom? In the 1920s and 1930s Hollingworth devised strategies to meet the cognitive and affective needs of this special population that are employed to this day.
Leta Hollingworth was, and remains, one of the few individuals without whose contributions the field of the gifted would be significantly impoverished. After speculating about some possible reasons for Hollingworth's relative neglect, some of her major accomplishments are discussed. These include teaching the first college course devoted exclusively to the gifted, writing the field's first comprehensive text, making many contributions to educational practice, and maintaining throughout her career the highest standards of scholarship. In light of her life and work and her importance to our field, Hollingworth is clearly the equal of seminal thinkers such as Galton and Terman.
Twenty‐eight former students at the Speyer School were interviewed by the author of this report. Three children from the group are portrayed through their interview protocols.The female students here considered their children as their major accomplishment, whereas the male cited his work in mathematics. Post‐Speyer education focused on family situations for the females from the school. All three alumni maintained a close tie with education, either as teachers or as board of education members.
12 very exceptional children were known and studied, some for as long as 23 years. The author at the time of her death in 1939 had been bringing a survey of them up to date. Part I, on general orientation, contains chapters on the concept of intellectual genius, on the early scientific study of eminent adults, and on published reports of tested children. Part II describes the 12 cases new to the literature, 7 reports having been formulated by H. L. Hollingworth from data left in the files of the author. Information besides that of repeated testings includes, whenever possible, facts concerning heredity, educational and social information, character traits, physical measurements, creative activities, test records of brothers and sisters, etc. Talking and reading most clearly differentiated the records of these children from the norms. Difficult educational problems were presented from school entrance. 1/3 showed notable signs of creativeness. As these children matured, they maintained their high initial intellectual status. Part III, giving selections from or complete reproductions of published papers, presents the author's views concerning general principles and about the social and educational implications resulting from her study of children of high intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
- Hollingworth L.S.