![]() ![]() ![]() children and other spectacularly precocious youth who made the best stories, of course. Few subjects were of more human interest than children. The early 20th century marked the rise of tabloid newspapers, which put greater emphasis on human interest stories. Ironically, Alfred Binet, the Frenchman whose name the test immortalized, had not set out to measure the wattage of the brightest children but to help identify the least intelligent, so they might receive an education that better suited them.Īlso contributing to the prodigy craze was a change in the nature of news itself. So, for example, a 6-year-old whose test performance matched that of a typical 6-year-old was said to have an average I.Q., of 100, while a 6-year-old who performed like a 9-year-old was awarded a score of 150. was based on comparing his or her mental age, determined by a standardized series of tests, to his or her chronological age. Then, in 1916, Stanford University psychologist Louis Terman published the Stanford-Binet test, which made the term intelligence quotient, or I.Q., part of the popular vocabulary.Ī child’s I.Q. An early intelligence test had been demonstrated at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893-the same exhibition that introduced Americans to such wonders as the Ferris wheel, Cracker Jacks and hula dancing. The recent advent of intelligence testing, which allowed psychologists to gauge mental ability with seemingly scientific precision, is one likely reason. While every generation produces its share of precocious children, no era, before or since, seems to have been so obsessed with them. Much like the movie stars, industrial titans and heavyweight champs of the day, their exploits were glorified and their opinions quoted in newspapers across the United States. In the first few decades of the 20th century, child prodigies became national celebrities. ![]()
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