GIFTED CHILDREN

Southland Times, Issue 20771, 11 May 1929, Page 7

GIFTED CHILDREN

THEIR NEED OF ATTENTION. PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY’S VIEWS. A prominent educationist in the person of Dr J. Pilcher, Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of British Columbia, arrived in Invercargill on Thursday evening. Dr Pilcher is a New Zealand woman, who has made a name for herself in the United States of America and Canada. She was educated at the Otago University and occupied the position of science mistress at the Auckland Girls’ Grammar School. She went to the United States nine years ago and spent six years at Stanford University, where she assisted Dr E. Terman in experimental work with norma! and gifted children, and gained the degree of doctor of philosophy. Before her appointment to the University of British Columbia, Dr Pilcher spent some time at the University of lowa. She is the only woman professor of psychology in Canada. Dr Pilcher was interviewed by a Times reporter last evening and discussed the application of practical psychology to education in Canada. She is a charming woman and is keenly interested in her work. In reply to a question regarding the University of British Columbia, Dr Pilcher said: “The university is attended by about 1800 students and is divided into three faculties—arts and science, applied science and agriculture. “This is my first visit to New Zealand in nine years, and I am going to visit all my old haunts. When I first went to America I studied under Dr Terman and assisted him in his experimental work with normal and gifted children. The tendency in the past has been to concentrate on the backward children, and the normal and gifted children have been neglected. The gifted child presents just as great a problem as the backward child and his needs have never been attended to. The old system allowed the gifted child to skip classes, but that was wrong. The child was carried forward and associated with older children and lost all social contact. Normal balance is absolutely essential, but when a child is pushed ahead intellectually the social and moral education is negected and the normal balance is lost. The old system has produced failures all over Canada, the United States, England and Europe. Instead of going ahead in all the subjects that make true education, the gifted child has been developed on the intellectual side only and is not an asset to any country. True education should make him all round useful. “I worked for three years with Dr Terman on the problems of the training of the gifted child. The object of our work was to find the difference between the gifted and the normal child and to apply the knowledge gained to the educating of the gifted child. The normal child presents no problems, it is ihc gifted child that needs attention. Dr Terman had a 40.000 dollar grant for the work which he called the genetic studies of geniuses. The research work included the study of the lives of 300 of the world’s geniuses. All available data relating to them up to 25 years of age was collected, and the gifted children studied will be followed to the same age. The data collected should show what constitutes a genius and when we discover that we will know how to educate the gifted child. Pre-School Training. “Our attention was also directed to failures,” Dr Pilcher continued, "and wc proved that they were mostly due to improper training during pre-school years. The child that does not receive proper training during the first seven years will never be right, and to overcome that we have commenced parental education. Training courses for parents have been established all over Canada and we give what information we have to those who attend. I do a great deal of outside lecturing, the courses being for behaviour problems, etcetera. The parents who are interested attend the lectures and work well with us, but our greatest problem is to get those who are not interested. "The training of the children is a very big problem because each child must be treated individually. I have done a great deal of work with psychological examinations of children. Each child’s problems are studied and their origin sought, and when the origin is removed the trouble disappears. We are applying psychological principles and are not experimenting with sensations. Wc have two nursery schools in Canada where children from two to six years of age are studied. There is no formal education, but the children are taught neatness and other necessary habits. They are carefully observed to obtain data for the development of the pre-school side of the child.” Dr Pilcher will return to America before September to represent the University of British Columbia at the ninth international psychological congress at Yale University. The congress commences on September 1 and lasts for seven days. Representatives will attend from all parts of America and Europe, and leading psychologists will deliver reports on the research work of the yeir.