scribed with I Q above 130 has ever had any unusual amount or kind of
home instruction. In most cases the parents were not aware of their very
great superiority. Nor can we give the credit to the school or its
methods. The school has in most cases been a deterrent to their
progress, rather than a help. These children have been taught in classes
with average and inferior children, like those described in the first
part of this chapter. Their high I Q is only an index of their
extraordinary cerebral endowment. This endowment is for life. There is
not the remotest probability that any of these children will deteriorate
to the average level of intelligence with the onset of maturity. Such an
event would be no less a miracle (barring insanity) than the development
of an imbecile into a successful lawyer or physician.

IS THE I Q OFTEN MISLEADING? Do the cases described in this chapter give
a reliable picture as to what one may expect of the various I Q levels?
Does the I Q furnish anything like a reliable index of an individual's
general educational possibilities and of his social worth? Are there not
"feeble-minded geniuses," and are there not children of exceptionally
high I Q who are nevertheless fools?

We have no hesitation in saying that there is not one case in fifty in
which there is any serious contradiction between the I Q and the child's
performances in and out of school. We cannot deny the existence of
"feeble-minded geniuses," but after a good deal of search we have not
found one. Occasionally, of course, one finds a feeble-minded person
who is an expert penman, who draws skillfully, who plays a musical
instrument tolerably well, or who handles number combinations with
unusual rapidity; but these are not geniuses; they are not authors,
artists, musicians, or mathematicians.

As for exceptionally intelligent children who appear feeble-minded, we
have found but one case, a boy of 10 years with an I Q of about 125.
This boy, whom we have tested several times and whose development we
have followed for five years, was once diagnosed by a physician as
feeble-minded. His behavior among other persons than his familiar
associates is such as to give this impression. Nothing less than an
entire chapter would be adequate for a description of this case, which
is in reality one of disturbed emotional and social development with
superior intelligence.

It should be emphasized, however, that what we have said about the
sign