The Gifted and the Creative (Revised and Expanded Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Hyman Blumberg Symposia on Research in Early Childhood Education)

"This is the seventh volume in the Blumberg series and the third one concerned with intellectual talent. It is based substantially on revised versions of papers presented at the Seventh Annual Hyman Blumberg Symposium on Research in Early Childhood Education, which was held on November 6-7, 1975, in Shriver Hall on the Homewood Campus of The Johns Hopkins University. The symposium was organized by us and chaired ably by J. W. Getzels. This is No. 3 in the Studies of Intellectual Precocity series. Nos. 1 and 2 were, respectively, _Mathematical Talent: Discovery, Description, and Development_, 1974, and _Intellectual Talent: Research and Development_, 1976. ...The text that follows is divided into four major sections. The first, entitled "The Gifted-Child Movement," contains the keynote paper by John C. Gowan. In it he discusses trends within the movement from the latter part of the nineteenth century to the present and provides a distinctive interpretation of them. Pauline S. Sears and Ann H. Barbee examine rather thoroughly the satisfaction of the women in Terman's group with their work and personal lives. Their expert use of data gathered at several points in time over a fifty-year period for the same cohort is unparalleled in all the gifted-child literature. This is the first publication based on the 1972 follow-up of the group. Other reports about that are being prepared by Lee J. Cronbach and Robert R. Sears, both of Stanford University, for publication elsewhere (e.g., see Sears 1977). Part I concludes with a sequel by Phyllis B. Ohanian regarding the attention that Terman in his 1930 volume had given to her as an infant and later to her sister and her as adolescents. It is fascinating to learn how well she and her family have achieved, both academically and in the performing arts. The second section, entitled "Two Longitudinal Studies at The Johns Hopkins University: The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth and the Intellectually Gifted Child Study Group," consists of two papers. The first of these is my detailed explanation of the assumptions and hypotheses underlying the large longitudinal study that my associates and I are conducting. Next, Lynn H. Fox reports on her work in the perplexing area of sex differences in mathematical aptitude and achievement. Dr. Fox, who helped start SMPY, has devised procedures that improve girls' performance in mathematics. The third major section consists of three papers on creativity. William B. Michael's mainly concerns mathematical and scientific giftedness, especially as viewed in the light of J. P. Guilford's structure-ofintellect model. E. Paul Torrance reports findings from his distinctive and widely used approach to creativity, including his longitudinal study of creative potential. Creativity and its relationship to the disadvantaged gifted are discussed. George S. Welsh explains his "origence-intellectence" two-way classification and shows some consequences of studying creativity in this manner. These three major reports by outstanding scholars bring together somewhat different points of view that are rarely juxtaposed. The fourth main section concludes the book with J. W. Getzels' expert editing of the long discussion among thirty-one professionals in various areas related to giftedness that followed the symposium. In it, many of the difficulties and concerns of the movement are well represented. Several basic disagreements among the discussants are evident."