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Plowden (1967) Notes on the text Volume 1 (page numbers in brackets) Preliminary pages (i-xxii)
Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 The growth of the child
Part 3 The home, school and neighbourhood
Part 4 The structure of primary education
Part 5 The children in the schools: curriculum and internal organisation
Part 6 The adults in the schools
Part 7 Independent schools
Part 8 Primary school buildings and equipment; status; and research
Part 9 Conclusions and recommendations
Notes (486-495)
Research and Surveys about Plowden |
The Plowden Report (1967)
A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1967
[page 305] 861. We have not undertaken, or commissioned, any special study of the education of gifted children. This has been done by others (10 but we have formed some impressions, in the course of our general enquiries, which it may be useful to describe briefly at this stage in our report. 862. While it is universally admitted that exceptionally gifted people do exist, both the identification of them as children and the treatment that such children need are a matter of some disagreement. There is first of all what may be described as an egalitarian suspicion of the whole concept of giftedness. This is no less strong for being a confused mixture of, among other things, dislike of privilege, doubts about intelligence tests and defensiveness about comprehensive schools. At the outset giftedness meets with an irrational obstacle. Even when this is overcome, there remains a real problem of identification. Giftedness is not a clearly defined category. It is characteristic of a small minority and the size of that minority is a matter of choice. It can be five per cent, one per cent or 0.1 per cent according to the degree of giftedness that is being postulated, but any definition in terms of IQ or, indeed, of any other attempts at measurement, is certain to be too inaccurate to be worth much. Giftedness varies in incidence in particular schools. In one independent preparatory school of which we have been told, as many as six per cent of the children are said to have an IQ of over 140, yet only 0.5 per cent of the whole population have, so far as measurement at that level is reliable, an IQ above that figure. In schools where the contributory population is less gifted, a child with an IQ of 125 (five per cent of the population) might be exceptional. Finally, there are forms of giftedness which are imperfectly revealed by intelligence tests; the tests devised to reveal creativity so far do not possess much validity. 863. In any ordinary group gifted children are bound to have particular needs. Their quality of thinking shows itself in the power to organise material and to perceive early the need for many different words to express shades of meaning, and the power to make analogies and use images. They seem to have the capacity of adapting methods and even of lowering sights in the pursuit of some idea. Self-criticism, beginning usually with criticism of others' work, often develops early, and it is often a problem to deal with the gifted child's dissatisfaction with his own capacity to carry out his ideas. The ability to see and to make a joke is an important if small indication of high ability. These children are often better adjusted and more cheerful than normal ones. Their distribution in the population makes it unlikely that chance will result in their meeting others of their kind. The attitudes of their contemporaries vary with the school and neighbourhood, but they may be unsympathetic. If their parents and teachers are not understanding, they may well find the world discouraging. Their interests may be branded as unhealthy or precocious, and their questions, which may seem tiresome and difficult to answer, resented and discouraged. These children may therefore [page 306] become frustrated and impatient. One must not restrict the search for the highly gifted to children who are doing well in school, to the 'good' children; one must look at the 'difficult' ones as well. 864. Some difficulties can arise from failure to recognise gifted children early enough. It is too often assumed that gifted children will be able to do the same things as the others but better. It is probably true that they could, but they often do not. They tend to be less conforming: their handwriting is often behind their mental development. They may suffer from boredom and set up a habit of day dreaming and escaping. 865. Even when the gifted child is recognised for what he is he may experience difficulties which will need very sympathetic handling by his teacher. He will often work and play with children older than himself, and be unable to match the physical skill or prowess of his companions, something which is highly prized by juniors. He may not feel at home with his contemporaries and yet he may not be accepted by those who are older. 866. The general conclusion to be drawn is sufficiently obvious. The needs of the highly gifted, however we define them, must be met. Their first and most important need is for perceptive parents. Though the genetic factors cannot be precisely determined they are unquestionably weighty. It is more likely than not that the parents of the exceptionally gifted will themselves be highly intelligent or will have highly intelligent immediate forbears. But this is far from being a certainty and in any case the parents may have had environments unfavourable to the development of their intelligence. We think that advice and help should be available to all parents who, for whatever reason, find their children hard to understand or to handle and, what is perhaps more difficult, that they should be persuaded to make use of it. The proposals that we make elsewhere for the establishment of nursery groups ought to help in the early identification of the gifted. The child welfare service also has a part to play. But it is when the children arrive in the infant school and move forward year by year towards conceptual thinking that the gifted begin to stand out and their needs therefore become clamant. ['noisy, insistent, urgent', OED.] 867. A possible solution of the problem is to concentrate them in certain schools. The question as to whether special schools for the gifted are as necessary as those for the handicapped has frequently been asked and demands consideration. In our own country some of the independent schools have been, in effect, something like this. In a stratified society such as ours this is perhaps not surprising, but in the United States, in spite of its long tradition of equality and of a common programme, classes for the gifted have for some time now been making their appearance. There are undoubtedly particular artistic gifts which either show themselves or need to be developed at an early age. Music and ballet, for example, are difficult to provide at a high enough level except in a school staffed and equipped for the purpose. It must of course provide a balanced education as well. 868. Most of our members believe that schools for the gifted should be limited to those providing training in such arts as music and ballet. In the first place, it is not desirable that the gifted should think of themselves, more than is necessary, as a class apart, still less that they should have no experience of living and getting on with more ordinary children. Secondly, the majority of us believe that the English system of primary education at its best [page 307] is better adapted than any other we have seen to provide for the needs of the gifted individual, without segregating him. We are aware that the best is more often sought than attained, and that gifted children are often at present bored in the upper reaches of the junior school. As we have said in Chapter 10 there will be some exceptional children who, because of their all-round development, intellectual, emotional and physical, should transfer from one stage of education to another earlier than their contemporaries. These children need to be with older children who are close to them in intellectual level. Most of us are confident that it is possible to provide satisfactorily for the majority of gifted children in the kind of primary school described throughout the Report. In a school where children are not confined to their own classroom, teacher and equipment, exceptional children should be able to spend part of the day with others of like ability and have access to the school collection of books and materials. 869. To teach a brilliant child, to receive from him a thought that could not have come from the teacher himself, ought to be a source of delight, yet it may not be easy for all teachers to admit to themselves that a pupil is more intelligent than they are. A teacher who finds himself with such a child must offer his sympathy, encouragement and delight in good work and never take refuge in the dangerous half truth which many people are fond of uttering that 'the clever child will look after himself'. He needs just as much support from his teacher, though of a different kind, as the dull and backward. He needs to be helped to cultivate his gifts and to place them at the service of the community. He needs subject matter beyond the normal range. He needs a richer curriculum, not simply a quicker journey through the ordinary one. He needs to go deeper and wider and he must have and use the resources that this implies - a really good library, the programmes of BBC and ITV and whatever contacts can be contrived with individuals outside the school who share his interests or can further them - the local museum curator, for instance, or any practitioner, architect, ornithologist, physicist, painter - who is willing to help him. The schools have a responsibility towards these children which must be taken seriously. We cannot afford to waste their talents. 870. In one area the problem is tackled by sending 60 highly intelligent children to a college of education where, on one day a week, they are given special lessons with an emphasis on concentrated work to which they are said to react with positive pleasure. In some areas, too, the needs of specially gifted young artists and musicians are met by out of school activities at art centres, at colleges of music, in children's orchestras and at schools of ballet and drama. Some of these special attempts are conducted on a voluntary basis and without tests for admission. They have, nevertheless, attracted the gifted and provided opportunities for developing specific talents. 871. A growing amount of attention, especially in the United States, is now being paid to the education of the gifted child and there is now little likelihood of his problem being overlooked in good primary schools. Indeed, there is some danger that the results of research undertaken in other countries may be too readily applied to the condition of our own. We think there is much still to be discovered and we welcome all attempts to improve the life and prospects of the gifted in the primary schools of this country. Long term studies should be mounted to elucidate further their needs and achievements. [page 308] Recommendation 872. Long term studies should be made on the needs and achievements of gifted children. 1. Terman Lewis M, Oden Melita H and others 'The Gifted Child Grows Up. Twenty-five Years Follow-up of a Superior Group', Stanford University Press, 1947, is perhaps the most famous of many studies in this field. 
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