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In 1970 my middle school principal called an assembly together for a talk. He proceeded to say that several people in our accelerated classes had low IQs. He tried to turn it into an "inspiring" speech about how these "low IQ' students had a "high will Q" rather than IQ. Well, of course everybody was wondering who had the "low IQ". And it turned out that I scored low on the IQ test because I had OCD and kept checking repeatedly during the test resulting in me never finishing any IQ tests because of my repetitive OCD checking. If you do not finish an IQ test you will score low on the test. People found out that I scored low on the IQ test and I was bullied by several students even in high school. Would this behavior by this principal have been allowed today? By the way, rot in hell Mr. Littlejohn in SC. Thanks. I needed that.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,690 posts, read 57,994,855 times
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How did people find out YOU did poorly on the IQ, (it wasn't the principal who broadcast it) and why didn't the "High will Q" pep talk work?
If not directly 'allowed' today, there are equally damaging exposures. (Social media may be FAR worse)
I don't blame your principal, but I also don't know why it was an issue for an 'assembly'.
Work through this (sooner than later).
One more day is not worth carrying this unnecessary burden.
There are SCADS of failures by humans. Including well meaning principals, teachers, bosses, spouses, parents, pastors, doctors.... *ourselves too
Chances are, there is no one harder on yourself than you.
Learn to lighten up, beating yourself up is not worth the pain.
Who said I was beating myself up? The IQ test is imperfect in that OCD and other mental illnesses can negatively affect the IQ test result for a given individual person. The point is that a local school system allowed someone's IQ test results to "get out" and people were allowed to make judgments about that student's intellect based on a faulty test.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,690 posts, read 57,994,855 times
Reputation: 46171
Quote:
Originally Posted by redraider1974
Who said I was beating myself up? The IQ test is imperfect in that OCD and other mental illnesses can negatively affect the IQ test result for a given individual person. The point is that a local school system allowed someone's IQ test results to "get out" and people were allowed to make judgments about that student's intellect based on a faulty test.
Please be more precise... a local school system allowed someone's IQ test results to "get out"
Please be VERY specific as to how the principal participated in this, AND your response to your school officials at the time.
We can only respond to what we know, and we know NOTHING of concrete evidence and corrective procedures that were implemented and followed up on.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,690 posts, read 57,994,855 times
Reputation: 46171
Quote:
Originally Posted by redraider1974
The principal, with the assembly, aroused people's interests. Students asked teachers and teachers with access to test records spilled the beans.
And you / your parent's response to the teachers?
and... the principal's response to you informing him (in accompanyment of the offending teacher).?
and... the staff's response / follow-up to you AFTER the remediation?
The principal, with the assembly, aroused people's interests. Students asked teachers and teachers with access to test records spilled the beans.
Then it was the teachers who were unethical, not the principal. Did you report them to the principal?
Nowadays, it may be possible to arrange in advance to get extra time to complete a standardized test of any kind, due to what might be considered a disability. Who knows, maybe even back then, if you'd been diagnosed, it would have been possible to get extra time. But you didn't really need the test score to know you had high potential, because you were in the accelerated classes.
Why was the school administering an IQ test? Was this for all students, or just the students in those special classes?
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 09-24-2023 at 02:28 AM..
We have to remember that schools treated grades very differently back then. Ours used to post grades for all to see. Here locally the elementary and middle schools posted A's and B's by name in the local paper. Which meant you also knew who got C's and D's because they weren't named as A's. Even had an issue on one of the state standardized tests where the principal and superintendent gave out enough identifying information that everyone knew who hadn't passed that test.
So I have no problem believing that a principal or teacher back then would give out grade information without repercussions. And at worst get a verbal slap in the wrist if they did it today. Most likely nothing would happen at all.
How did people find out YOU did poorly on the IQ, (it wasn't the principal who broadcast it) and why didn't the "High will Q" pep talk work?
If not directly 'allowed' today, there are equally damaging exposures. (Social media may be FAR worse)
I don't blame your principal, but I also don't know why it was an issue for an 'assembly'.
Work through this (sooner than later).
One more day is not worth carrying this unnecessary burden.
There are SCADS of failures by humans. Including well meaning principals, teachers, bosses, spouses, parents, pastors, doctors.... *ourselves too
Chances are, there is no one harder on yourself than you.
Learn to lighten up, beating yourself up is not worth the pain.
I think you're right on target here.
Talking to students about general types of student academic behavior wouldn't be illegal then or now. How he handled it might very well not be wise. What would be illegal would if school personnel released actual information about any specific student
What adults in school say to students matters. When I became a seventh grader at our junior-senior high school, we each had a private meeting with our guidance counselor. Mine told me that I was "just a C student". I had been raised to believe that adults are pretty much always right, so I didn't say to Mr. Rigney, "No, I'm an A student". I became a C student once I was told I was a C student. And sometimes became a D student. It wasn't until my first year of college that I got back on track and finally realized that when he had pulled out my student file...he had pulled out the student file for the other student in our school whose name was almost identical to mine (Terrence versus Terry).
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