The Speyer School

The Speyer School (1935-1941), was started within a building at Columbia's Teachers College, and named after financier James Speyer in 1902. The Speyer School became famous between 1935-39 when it was used a "laboratory" to study how children perform when separated by educational ability. There were seven classrooms with 175 students, which had an average IQ on the Stanford Binet test of between 75-90 and two classrooms with students that tested at the level of 130+ on the same IQ test.

The experiment was led by Leta Stetter Hollingworth, an American psychologist who specialized in education and who is credited with creating the term "gifted children." The results of the several studies conducted by Hollingworth dispelled many myths about exceptional children and suggested that many exceptionally gifted children suffer adjustment problems due to two factors: inept treatment by adults and lack of intellectual challenge. Her work also made “emotional education” an important part of the original Speyer School curriculum.

References

Category:Columbia University