f
unusual ability.[6]

[6] See p. 26 _ff._ for further illustrations of this kind.

Teachers should be better trained in detecting the signs of superior
ability. Every child who consistently gets high marks in his school work
with apparent ease should be given a mental examination, and if his
intelligence level warrants it he should either be given extra
promotions, or placed in a special class for superior children where
faster progress can be made. The latter is the better plan, because it
obviates the necessity of skipping grades; it permits rapid but
continuous progress.

The usual reluctance of teachers to give extra promotions probably rests
upon three factors: (1) mere inertia; (2) a natural unwillingness to
part with exceptionally satisfactory pupils; and (3) the traditional
belief that precocious children should be held back for fear of dire
physical or mental consequences.

In order to throw light on the question whether exceptionally bright
children are specially likely to be one-sided, nervous, delicate,
morally abnormal, socially unadaptable, or otherwise peculiar, the
writer has secured rather extensive information regarding 31 children
whose mental age was found by intelligence tests to be 25 per cent above
the actual age. This degree of intelligence is possessed by about
2 children out of 100, and is nearly as far above average intelligence
as high-grade feeble-mindedness is below. The supplementary information,
which was furnished in most cases by the teachers, may be summarized as
follows:--

1. _Ability special or general._ In the case of 20 out of 31 the
ability is decidedly general, and with 2 it is mainly general.
The talents of 5 are described as more or less special, but
only in one case is it remarkably so. Doubtful 4.

2. _Health._ 15 are said to be perfectly healthy; 13 have one or
more physical defects; 4 of the 13 are described as delicate;
4 have adenoids; 4 have eye-defects; 1 lisps; and 1 stutters.
These figures are about the same as one finds in any group of
ordinary children.

3. _Studiousness._ "Extremely studious," 15; "usually studious" or
"fairly studious," 11; "not particularly studious," 5; "lazy,"
0.

4. _Moral traits._ Favorable traits only, 19; one or more
unfavorable traits, 8; no answer, 4. The eight with
unfavorable moral traits are described as follows: 2 are "very
self-willed"; 1 "n