Gifted Education, History of

Early Public Education

During the early years of the American public school system, gifted education programs were notably absent. Through the early 1800s, philosophical and behaviorist theories that one could be molded entirely based on controlled experiences were supported by the democratic ideal that all men are created equal and provided a strong basis upon which gifted education was deemed unwarranted.

Around 1850, scholars began to talk about the gifted or academically talented child. It was then thought that a very thin line separated genius and insanity, and the psychology of the gifted child provided the impetus for further study. Sir Francis Galton performed the first scientific study of giftedness in the late 1800s, ranking subjects based on their percentile intelligence score compared to the general population, thus furnishing the first comprehensive description of the gifted.

In 1861, William Torrey Harris, then Superintendent of Schools in St. Louis, Missouri, established the first acceleration program for gifted students based on the concept of flexible promotions wherein students could be promoted to the next grade level after either a year, semester, quarter, or five-week time period. However, this program did not give any consideration to a gifted child's social needs.

From 1880 to 1900, the first homogeneously grouped gifted programs began. These programs provided advanced academic studies and social interaction between gifted students; however, such programs for the gifted were limited. The general belief among educators was that the gifted child should remain in the heterogeneous classroom, with the teacher making appropriate modifications for the student in the regular curriculum.

Specific Programs Begin

Gifted programs expanded to include special schools for the gifted with accelerated academic programs in the early 1900s. Whether grouped in a special class or [Page 369]school, homogeneous grouping of gifted students was proposed as a major step toward making education of the gifted (and all students) more efficient; this same rationale continues to be used today in justifying homogeneous grouping of gifted students.

During the 1920s, the Binet-Simon intelligence test was first used to study large groups of gifted children. At Stanford University, Lewis M. Terman supervised the modification of the original Binet-Simon test into the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, used the test to identify more than 1,500 gifted children, and performed extensive field studies on these children throughout their lives.

The advent of a quantifiable measuring device for identifying gifted children was crucial to the continuation and refinement of gifted education programs. Gifted education programs in the 1920s were generally enrichment programs where the traditional curriculum was expanded upon in various ways. The influence of William H. Kilpatrick's project method, which was developed during this time period, likely aided in influencing this shift from acceleration to enrichment orientation.

Although a few gifted education programs continued and flourished during the 1930s and 1940s, in general, neither gifted nor mentally retarded programs received widespread attention during this time. A 1931 White House conference report stated that although 1.5 million children with IQs greater than 120 had been identified in the United States, less than 1 percent of those children were enrolled in special classes. Of the students who were enrolled in special classes, the primary method of instruction used was still homogeneous grouping with less emphasis on acceleration than in the early 1900s.

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