Education: Against IQs

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In U.S. education's Sputnik-sparked search for talent, the latest grail is "creativity." Few search for it harder than Psychologists Jacob W. Getzels and Philip W. Jackson of the University of Chicago, who sharply disagree with the prevalent notion that a high IQ is the mark of "giftedness." In fact, argue Getzels and Jackson, the truly creative child who thrives on novelty is likely to find IQ tests boring and hence do poorly on them.

Seeking a better yardstick than the IQ, Getzels and Jackson tried asking children to glance at "stimulus" pictures and write an appropriate story. Recently, the pair gave their "test" to 500 teenagers, including both high-IQ students and youngsters who appeared highly creative.

One of the Getzels-Jackson pictures showed a man in an airplane seat. Biting his pencil thoughtfully, a high-IQ teenager jotted down a conventional description of "Mr. Smith" returning "from a successful business trip" and "thinking about his wonderful family and how glad he will be to see them again." To a creative classmate, the situation looked very different. "This man," he wrote, "is flying back from Reno where he has just won a divorce from his wife. He couldn't stand to live with her any more because she wore so much cold cream on her face at night that her head would skid across the pillow and hit him in the head. He is now contemplating a new skidproof face cream."

The kind of mind that can conceive of skidproof face cream, concede Getzels and Jackson, is likely to drive a teacher dotty. But it is also, they argue, the kind of mind that solves problems by striking out in new directions. And until teachers conquer their tendency to associate goodness with giftedness and to mark accordingly, they add, U.S. schools will continue to smother some of the nation's best youngsters.