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A study has been following 'gifted' kids for over 50 years. Here's what we've learned.

Some of what we thought about gifted students turned out to be very wrong.

What can we learn from letting seventh graders take the SAT?

In the 1960s, psychologist Julian Stanley realized that if you took the best-testing seventh graders from around the country and gave them standard college entry exams, those kids would score, on average, about as well as the typical college-bound high school senior. However, the seventh graders who scored as well or better than high schoolers, Stanley found, had off-the-charts aptitude in quantitative, logical, and spatial reasoning. In other words, they were gifted.

In the 1970s, Stanley and his team launched a full-scale study, identifying many of America's gifted kids and tracking them throughout their lives.

The study, called the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth never ended and is now more than 50 years in the making. It has followed countless kids from middle school into their careers as some of America's top politicians, scientists, CEOs, engineers, and military leaders. Needless to say, a lot has changed with how students are today compared to 50 years ago.

Stanley passed away in the mid-2000s, but psychologist David Lubinski helped bring the study to Vanderbilt University in the 1990s, where he now co-directs it with Camilla P. Benhow.

It's not a stretch to call this the biggest and most in-depth study on intellectual "precociousness." The results of the study thus far are equal parts fascinating and genuinely surprising — a deeply insightful look into the minds and lives of brilliant children.

woman standing in front of children Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash



1. Some of what we used to think about gifted kids turned out to be wrong.

Ever heard the saying "early to ripe, early to rot"? It basically means doing "too much" to foster a kid's special talents and abilities at too young an age could actually cause harm in the long term.

That's not even remotely true, at least not according to Lubinski.

That might be an outdated example. But Lubinksi says there are plenty of other misconceptions still alive today, like the idea that gifted kids are so smart that they'll "find a way" to excel even if those smarts aren't nurtured and developed.

Not so fast. "They're kids," he explains. "They need guidance. We all need guidance."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

2. Intelligence is not the same as passion.

Quick, what's the "smartest" career you can think of. Doctor? Scientist?

While you do have to be pretty brilliant to work in medicine or science, those are far from the only career paths gifted kids choose later in life.

"Quantitatively, gifted people vary widely in their passions," Lubinski says. Many of the students in the study did end up pursuing medicine, but others went into fields like economics or engineering. Others still were more gifted in areas like logical or verbal reasoning, making them excellent lawyers and writers.

"There are all kinds of ways to express intellectual talent," Lubinski explains.

When it comes to doing what's best for a gifted student, it's just as important for parents and educators to know what the student is passionate about rather than pigeonholing them in traditionally "smart" fields and registering them in a bunch of STEM courses.

three people sitting in front of table laughing together Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

3. Hard work definitely still matters.

Measuring a student's aptitude, their natural abilities, is only one part of the equation when it comes to determining how successful they'll be in life. Aptitude scores can identify a particularly strong natural skill set but tell us very little about how hard that person might work to excel in that field.

Effort, Lubinski says, is a critical factor in determining how far someone's going to go in life. "If you look at exceptional performers in politics, science, music, and literature, they're working many, many hours," he says.

(And for the record, there are a lot more important things in life than just career achievement, like family, friends, and overall happiness.)

selective focus photography of jolly woman using peace hand gesture Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

4. Regardless of aptitude, every kid deserves to be treated as though they were gifted.

The study's focus is specifically on kids within a certain range of intellectual ability, but Lubinski is careful to note that many of its findings can and should be applied to all students.

For example, the kids in the study who were given an opportunity to take more challenging courses that aligned with their skills and interests ultimately went on to accomplish more than the students who were not afforded the same opportunity.

"You have to find out where your child's development is, how fast they learn, what are their strengths and relative weaknesses and tailor the curriculum accordingly," Lubinski says. "It's what you would want for all kids."

It may sound a bit like a pipe dream, but it's a great starting point for how we should be thinking about the future of education in America.

This article originally appeared eight years ago.

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This guy applied for 60 jobs and got 1 interview from places that said they were hiring

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Man applies to 60 jobs and gets one interview.

Nobody wants to work anymore? Tell that to Joey Holz, the Florida man who applied to 60 entry-level jobs, only to receive one interview. Perhaps all of the problems facing the American labor market are, in fact, not due to widespread "laziness." Go figure.

Odds are you've seen a sign outside a place of business, lamenting a loss of employees. If not in real life, perhaps you've caught a quick glimpse on the internet. It's pretty widespread at this point. There's even a Facebook group titled "No one wants to work," where short-staffed employers could meme out their frustrations.


In an interview with Insider, former food-service worker and charter-boat crewman Joey Holz recalled hearing one business owner's labor shortage complaint, saying he "went on this rant about how he can't find help and he can't keep anybody in his medical facility because they all quit over the stimulus checks."

Holz continued, "And I'm like, 'Your medical professionals quit over $1,200 checks? That's weird.'"


Weird indeed, considering that even after the end of federal unemployment benefits, there hasn't been a surge in employment. Holz told Insider "If this extra money that everyone's supposedly living off of stopped in June and it's now September, obviously, that's not what's stopping them," he said.

Holz decided to inquire/investigate further. He started applying for jobs himself, starting with restaurants, which had been more outspoken about their staffing obstacles. The rule was to only apply for roles he actually qualified for. He told Insider "I didn't apply for anything that required a degree. I didn't apply for anything that said 'must have six months experience in this thing.'"

Describing the common job qualifications, Joey noted that "some jobs wanted a high-school diploma … some wanted retail experience … most of them either said 'willing to train' or 'minimum experience.'" In terms of the pay, "none of them were over $12 an hour."

In an amazing show of his administrative skills, Holz even tracked his process in a spreadsheet. The results? Pretty abysmal. Out of 28 job applications, he received only nine email responses. But hey, that led to one interview! Oh boy, here comes the big turnaround.

Holz went to interview for a full-time site cleanup position with a construction company. Where the hourly rate was advertised as $10, the company instead tried to negotiate that down to $8.65. And instead of full time, they offered part time until Holz gained seniority.

By the end of his experiment, Holz had sent out 60 applications and subsequently received 16 email responses, four follow-up phone calls, and the one interview with a company that misadvertised its hourly rate. He shared a pie chart showing that 70% of his efforts received no reply.


So, is this really a case of entitled generations waiting for government handouts? The chart suggests otherwise. Holz has a clear stance on the subject. In a Facebook post that went viral on Twitter and Reddit, he wrote, "58 applications says y'all aren't desperate for workers, you just miss your slaves."

Seems like Joey has hit the nail on the head. People aren't laying back, they're fed up. Fed up with toxic work environments and unlivable wages, to the point of "rage quitting" and starting anti-work subreddits lambasting the terrible bedside manner of most bosses.

Like this bartender, who wasn't a "team player" for drinking on his night off.

Nobody wants to work anymorer/antiwork thread on TwitterTwitter

Or this worker who–despite being the top performer–received a complaint from his boss about not standing on a broken foot.

After6 0 job applications this man only received one interviewr/antiwork thread on TwitterTwitter

No amount of sloth-blasting rhetoric is going to change the fact that a systematic change, one that actually causes the workplace to thrive and promote well-being, needs to be made. And as Holz told Insider, his story is "familiar to many." Maybe this isn't an act of apathy and more like a cry for help.

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All those articles about how selfish millennials are? A new study disagrees.

We all know that millennials are entitlement-oozing, spoiled, special snowflakes, who need to grow up, get over themselves, and get a damn job.

[rebelmouse-image 19533104 dam="1" original_size="700x364" caption="And need to cool it with those damn selfie sticks. Photo by Marco Verch/Flickr." expand=1]And need to cool it with those damn selfie sticks. Photo by Marco Verch/Flickr.

But ... science just won't stop telling us we're wrong about that.

A new study, which will be published in the journal "Psychological Science," found that even after all those participation trophies, helicopter parents, selfies, Insta-pics, and snappy chats, young people these days are ... basically no more self-absorbed than young people 30 years ago.

Or, most likely, young people 30 years before that, according to the study's authors.

The researchers surveyed the scores of tens of thousands of college students who took the Narcissism Personality Inventory test between 2000 and 2017. The average student scored between 15 and 16 on the 40-point scale, a slight decrease from their peers in the 1990s.

"There never was a narcissism epidemic, despite what has been claimed," lead researcher Brent Roberts, psychology professor at the University of Illinois, said in a news release.

Recent research has increasingly found that elevated self-regard is simply a developmental hallmark of adolescence.

"We have faulty memories, so we don’t remember that we were rather self-centered when we were that age," Roberts explained.

A 2013 study found that a common teenage brain process that increased self-centeredness also boosts information retention, allowing young people to learn faster and hold on to memories better than adults.

While we were busy self-esteem-shaming them in the pages of magazines, millennials were getting up to some pretty selfless stuff.

[rebelmouse-image 19533105 dam="1" original_size="700x479" caption="Photo by The All-Nite Images/Flickr." expand=1]Photo by The All-Nite Images/Flickr.

The Millennial Impact Report, published in 2015, found that 70% of that generation volunteer, and more than 80% report giving to charity.

Some of them are criss-crossing the United States trying to make it easier for people to vote.

Others are breaking new ground in infectious disease research and bringing award-winning science and medicine to rural regions of the world.

Still others are campaigning for racial justice and attempting to build a more equal, less violent society.

If that's where being lazy, entitled, and self-absorbed leads, perhaps other generations should follow. Getting a selfie stick would be a good start.

Heroes

A new breast cancer study has good news, but not everyone can celebrate equally.

For years, breast cancer patients, survivors, and their families have wondered if decades of walks, ribbons, fundraising, awareness, and dedicated activism were making a difference.

On Tuesday, a new batch of results came in.

A statistical analysis published by the American Cancer Society found that mortality rates from breast cancer fell 39% between 1989 and 2015.

The decrease amounts to 322,600 saved lives in 26 years, according to the paper's authors. Researchers attribute the drop to increased early detection and more effective treatment options.

The percentage of women over 40 who have had a mammogram in the prior two years grew from 29% in 1987 to 64% in 2015. Meanwhile, options for combatting the disease have increased, thanks to the advent of new drugs and therapies.

Hundreds of thousands of fewer people dying is good news.

The bad news is that black women continue to die from the disease at higher rates than any other demographic.

While a lower percentage of black women are dying from the disease overall, their fatality rates are still nearly 40% higher than those of white women, a rate that has remained maddeningly persistent for decades.

[rebelmouse-image 19531394 dam="1" original_size="700x466" caption="Photo by USAG, Humphreys/Flickr." expand=1]Photo by USAG, Humphreys/Flickr.

"The reason for the black and white difference is primarily related to economic status and lack of insurance on part of black women," Harold Freeman, former director of the American Cancer Society, told NPR in a 2014 interview.  "But also, we have a health care system that doesn't treat everyone equally." He cites a lack of ability to pay for preventive care and subconscious assumptions that lead some medical professionals to ignore black women's concerns as contributing factors.

The study also found that the racial mortality gap varied heavily by region. Disparities were worst in eight mostly southern states: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, and Michigan.

Eliminating the racial disparity when it comes to breast cancer diagnoses will require more than ribbons and walks to solve — and organizations are already rising to the challenge.

Groups like Breast Cancer Action have made racial justice a core plank, citing the need to address the disparities in education, housing, and economic power that exacerbate the mortality gap at its root.

As a stopgap, programs like the CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program help provide early detection screenings to low-income and uninsured people.

While some states indeed showed large, persistent racial disparities in mortality rates, according to the study, the gap was nearly nonexistent in several others. Three states — California, Massachusetts, and Delaware — made significant, verifiable progress in making outcomes more equal over the 26-year span.

"This means that there is light at the end of the tunnel," Carol DeSantis, lead author of the study, told The Washington Post. "Some states are showing that they can close the gap."

For the 252,710 people expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year — and hundreds of thousands more in the years to come — the progress in treating the disease is a welcome sign.

The work to make sure they all have an equal shot at a full recovery remains.

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