10/19/2000:
Word of the Day:authochthonous

Table I.Summary Description of 12 Children with IQs Above 180

C	S	IQ	Talked	R	Personality, Character	Age
A	M	184-191	10 mos.	3	undemonstrative, absent-minded, obstinate , dominant	86
B	F	188-189	9 mos.	3	socially very adept, good mixer, dominant	88
C	M	180-190	16 mos.	3	unsociable, prig, tactless, exacting	87
D	M	184	8 mos.	1.5	socially adept, no play, chess	D
E	M	187	24 mos.	3	congenial, undemonstrative, no play, private, no hobby	92
F	M	>182	12 mos.	4.5	sociable, severe character flaws	D
G	M	163-192	?	6	sociable, excellent character, exacting	77
H	F	148-189	16 mos.	4.5	sociable, adult among children	77
I	F	184	18 mos.	?	sociable, outstanding supporting traits	71
J	F	200+	?	3	sociable, played, adult among children	71
K	M	178	2	3	loner, exacting	77
L	M	153-199	9 mos.	4	sociable, serious, exacting	73

C  (Column 1) - Letter code for identifying each child.
S  (Column 2) - Sex.
IQ (Column 3) - Range of measured IQs.
Talked (Column 4) - Approximate age at which child spoke first words.
R  (Column 5) - Age at which child learned to read.
Personality, Character (Column 6) - Personality and character traits.
Age (Column 7) - Present age, if still living. ("D" = "Deceased")

    One interesting note: of the 10 children reviewed so far, 3 (Children F, G, and H) had one or more IQ scores that deviated more than 20 points from their other scores. A fourth (Child I) had a score that doesn't appear to me to be consonant with some later achievement scores. (The achievement tests suggest an IQ in the 150 to 170 range.) A fifth child (Child K) also scored a 148 on one of the tests given to him, although two other tests yielded IQs in the 180+ range. And finally L made a 153 on an Otis group test. That makes 5 out of 12 who had one or more anomalous IQ scores that were 20-or-more points removed from their 180+ IQs, plus another whose IQ probably wasn't as high as her one 180+ IQ score indicates. It leaves you wondering how often this happens, and how reliably these children's IQ scores could be measured. And if their IQ scores can sometimes be so far off, it raises a question about how often we might seriously miscalibrate IQs in general. So if you get a low score on an IQ test, don't end it all by jumping off the roof of your Corvette. It may a false alarm. (I once scored 128 on an optional high school test that went to IQ 132. Hey! I know what you're thinking! "How did he score that high?")
    It's interesting to note that nobody needed an IQ test to tell that these kids were super-smart. The IQ testing occurred only after the children had been identified on the basis of their behavior. And they'd have been marked as child geniuses before there were IQ tests. No one needed an IQ test to tell that Gauss was a mental giant. And Dr. Isaac Barrow must have sensed something in Isaac Newton or Dr. Barrow wouldn't have relinquished his Lucasian chair of Mathematics at Cambridge to the downy-cheeked, 22-year-old Newton.

THE REJECTION

I can remember when the world was flat.
It hung mid-center of the universe,
The only world in all of God's creation;
And I, of all His creatures set apart,
Flesh of His flesh and heart of His own heart,
Stood hand in hand, most comfortably, with Him.

Who would have thought so much could change so soon?
I barely noticed when the galaxies
First loomed beyond the ranks of seraphim,
When the great sun became a dying star
Caught in the fringes of the Milky Way.
The world grew round, and God released His hand
And wandered off on errands of His own.
I barely noticed till I stood alone,
But I remcmbcr how I called His name
Thinking He might come back.
He never came.

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