Blog Journeys of a Lifelong Learner

Excerpt from "The Childhood Pattern of Genius"

by Harold G. McCurdy

professor of psychology, Univ. of North Carolina (published by the Smithsonian Institution and elsewhere):

"In summary, the present survey of biographical information on a sample of twenty men of genius suggests that the typical development pattern includes as important aspects:

(1) a high degree of attention focused upon the child by parents and other adults, expressed in intensive educational measures and usually, abundant love;

(2) isolation from other children, especially outside the family;

(3) a rich efflorescence of fantasy [i.e. creativity] as a reaction to the preceding conditions.

It might be remarked that the mass education of our public school system is, in its way, a vast experiment on the effect of reducing all three factors to a minimum; accordingly, it should tend to suppress the occurrence of genius."

(from http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6529/index5.html — I haven't evaluated the material on that page, but that paragraph is sobering.)