Genius Revisited ― High IQ Children Grown Up

"questions are discussed in this interesting study about what it is like to grow up gifted, the realities of school, the expectations of others, and the choices the gifted make in adulthood." Contemporary Psychology This volume summarizes a study designed to assess the outcomes of early identification and schooling for a group of highly gifted children. The subjects were graduates of one of America's most selective educational institutions, the Hunter College Elementary School (HCES). HCES developed as an outgrowth of a series of experiments and philosophical statements reflecting the political and social history of the United States in the first half of the 20th century, and was created in1941 to serve children with IQ scores at least two standard deviations above the mean. This book proposes that the reported reflections of individuals in their 40s and 50s, who were selected at approximately age 4 for special instruction on the basis of high IQ scores, can provide insight into the development of future educational options for gifted students. The objective is to contribute these unique perspectives to the literature that describes and analyzes the long-term outcomes of educational decisions concerning the identification and education of gifted children.

RENA SUBOTNIK is a specialist in gifted education at Hunter College and research/curriculum consultant to the Hunter College Campus Schools. She was the winner of the 1990 Early Scholar Award of the National Association for Gifted Children and currently serves on the editorial board of the American Educational Research Journal and is chairperson of the Research and Evaluation Division of the National Association for Gifted Children.

LEE KASSAN is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City, specializing in the treatment of gifted adults and adolescents. He is a fellow of the American Institute for Psychology and Psychoanalysis.

ELLEN SUMMERS, a prize winning poet and author of short stories, reviews, and articles featured in various literary journals and periodicals teaches undergraduate composition, creative writing, and literature at C.W. Post campus of Long Island University.

ALAN WASSER, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Space Society, was a broadcast journalist for 13 years.