Passage
12
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The old idea
that child prodigies ( 神童
) "burn themselves" or "overtax their brains" in
the early years, therefore, are prey to failure and ( at worst ) mental
illness is just a myth. As a matter of fact, the outstanding thing that
happens to bright children is that they are very likely to grow into bright
adults.
To find this out, 1,500 gifted persons were followed
up to their thirty-fifty year with these results:
On adult intelligence tests, they scored as high as
they did as children. They were, as a group, in good health, physically
and mentally. Eighty-four percent of their group were married and seemed
content with their life.
About 70percent had graduated from colleges, though
only 30 percent had graduated with honors. A few had even flunked out
(
退学
), but nearly half of these had returned to graduate.
Of the men, 80 percent were in one of the professions
or in business, managers or semi-professional jobs. The women who had
remained single had offices, business, or professional occupations.
The group had published 90 books and 1,500 articles
in scientific, scholarly, and literary magazines and had collected more than
100 patents ( 专利
).
In a material way they didn't do badly either .
Average income was considerably higher among the gifted people, especially the
men, than for the country as a whole, despite their comparative youth when
last surveyed.
In fact, far from being strange, maladjusted
(
难以适应
) people locked in an ivory tower, most of the gifted were
turning
their early promises into practical reality.