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Horace Mann of Boston, worked to reform the public school system. Kindergarten through 12 grade.
Slowly public education came about with having one-room schools, but some of them only offered up to seven grades. Horace Mann was responsible for the reformation of public schooling. -
First true intelligence test was created.
Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon produced the test that measured vocabulary knowledge and thinking skills. -
Lewis M. Terman
Terman is considered the father of the gifted child movement. His search for boys and girls with high IQ's of at least 135-140 in the 1920's to this day is the greatest achievement of the gifted movement. He revised the Binet-Simon scale and improved it and adapted for testing children and in some cases, adults. -
12-year-old Grade 8 student, Joe
Joe was observed by his computer professor, Doris K. Lidtke, and was highly impressed with him. The professor asked for assistance, she called on J.C. Stanley. He was 13 and a half and taking college courses. This brought J.C. Stanley to think about how he can help this child who was obviously very intelligent. Joe went on to do very well at the John Hopkins University, and even received both his B.A. and Master's degrees in computer science at the age of 17. -
The Founding of SMPY
The "Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth" was created by J. C Stanley after working with Joe and another outstanding child, Jonathan who had the same journey as Joe. Stanley was inspired and asked for grants from the Spencer Foundation of Chicago. The foundation had plenty of money but no grant seekers. Stanley had ideas about how to find seekers. He felt these special children deserved advanced educational opportunities. He was granted $266,100. With that money he created SMPY. -
A Nation Deceived
This publication reported on the benefits and advantages of meeting the needs of children who were considered gifted. The report opened the discussion and concerns of our country's inability to properly meet the needs of these special children.
