Several years ago, I attended the National Association for Gifted Children Conference. It was there that I first heard of Leta Hollingworth even though I had been working as an advisor to Pittsburgh's gifted program for some time. I attended an evening session where several well known presenters described Hollingworth's life, her work, her poetry, and her person. I was hooked.
The following day, I attended another session which ignited my determination to make sure that Leta was given credit, if only here in Pittsburgh, as the foremother of the gifted movement. A rather strange thing happened. This session dealt with the problems of gifted women.
The presenter made the point that too few men in important positions know too little and care too little about gifted girls and their plight. To prove her point, towards the end of the session, the presenter asked the women present to stand. There were over one hundred! Then she called for the men to stand up. Two! Just two!
This experience made me determined to learn more about Hollingworth. I began examining some of her original books to find her insights as poignant today as they were years ago. I uncovered another startling fact: our lives coexisted for a brief three-month period toward the Fall of 1939. I was just beginning; Leta was dying of cancer.
Consider the following statements.
• The proper role of women is motherhood.
• An appropriate measure of giftedness is reaching a position of great distinction or superiority.
• Because males vary from the norm to a greater degree than women, men are more intelligent.
• Gifted children need no special provisions to reach their greatest potential.
• Children with high IQs are social misfits.
• Women’s mental and motor abilities are cyclical, intimately connected with their menstrual cycle.
Few people would seriously entertain these attitudes today, so ludicrous are they; yet, during the early decades of the last century, much of the populace would have deemed them true, especially regarding education.
Disproving such attitudes is due to the remarkable work of Leta Stetter Hollingworth, a young Nebraska pioneer of enduring courage, remarkable wit, and unquestionable talent. She challenged accepted beliefs about women, education, and gifted children as well.
Hollingworth was born in the Spring of 1886, in Chadron, Nebraska. "Texas long-horns, Sioux Indians, blizzards, sod-houses, our log house, and the one-room schoolhouse" are all memories of her early life with a pioneer family. Her elementary education in that tiny school she judged as excellent. "We had small classes (twelve pupils, in all), all nature for a laboratory," she wrote, "and individualized instruction” (Hollingworth, 1943).
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