Gifted Teachers Can Learn from Justin Chapman
An Ugly Tale of a Parent Who Loved that "Genius" Label Too Much
May 3, 2009
With young Elise Tan Roberts in the news, teachers with long memories remember a similar media stir in 2002. Then a Colorado boy dazzled everyone with his perfect SAT math score (testing at age 8), which was explained by his astronomical IQ of 298 on the Stanford-Binet (testing at age 6). This was all old news to Justin's grandparents, because the little boy had hit the ceiling of his first IQ test at age 3. It was all too good to be true, and it became a nightmare for everyone, including his teachers.
The Sad Story of Justin Chapman
For a while, it looked like Justin Chapman was going to be the poster child for gifted education. Apparently, his own teachers read the young child's column, "The Justin Report", in the Paradigm News publication. Justin's mother, Elizabeth Chapman, had documented his acts of genius and sought alternate routes of educating him, as traditional schools could not meet his extraordinary needs. Julie Poppen listed many of his feats in her report. "Boy Genius" for The Rocky Mountain News. In addition to his Everest-high test scores, young Justin:
- read at two and a half
- took algebra classes at age four
- enrolled at the University of Rochester at age six
- began public lectures at age seven, where he would " read a presentation while exhibiting transparencies of bell curves and graphs. He quoted Eleanor Roosevelt and Ralph Waldo Emerson."
What hindsight shows is that while the media focused on what Justin was doing, some educators were properly focused on what Justin wasn't doing: taking classes in person or answering questions as expected.
Justin Chapman's Score Felt False
There is a reason "hindsight is 20/20" is a cliche. The phrase proves true far too frequently to be ignored. In Harrison Fletcher's 2001 article "Touched by an Angel", Linda Silverman, the woman who tested Justin Chapman, shared her experiences in testing him. His scores, according to Fletcher, were "unbelievable but undeniable." Of course, that is a flag right there. IQ tests are normed with thousands of participants, yet when Silverman tested him, ""I couldn't figure out how he knew what he knew. I didn't know intelligence like that was possible. I have no explanation."
The first sign, then, of a hoax, is scores that feel false. Linda Silverman had forty years of experience when she tested Justin, but she felt his scores were believable because the idea that a parent would go to the necessary extremes to create such scores seems cruel and neglectful, but parents are cruel and neglectful. Sadly, parent neglect is more frequent than perfect SAT scores.
Justin Chapman was Not Tested in Public School
The next sign of a hoax is that the testing is done privately, although there are certainly wonderful private test facilities, and private testing removes burdensome testing costs from public schools. Parents like private testing because they are able to schedule testing, have a shorter wait for the tests and test results, and they are able to do the testing outside of school.
If schools accept scores from private testing facilities, they need to know the reliability of the testers. It is important that schools ask the facility:
- how the testers were trained
- if parents knew which version of the test would be given
- how testing materials are stored.
There is no reason for schools to be suspicious of private test scores, unless they are extraordinary and unrepeated. Justin's mother, Elizabeth, claimed that the public schools in New York refused to test Justin; every public school gifted ed teacher knows that claim feels false.
How Teachers Should Handle an Elizabeth Chapman
In the Rocky Mountain Collegian, Sarah Laribee described mothers like Justin's mom. "We see the socially acceptable forms of Chapman's mom in the parents who push their kids a little too hard, a little too fast. It's the soccer mom syndrome on crack." ("Pressure Destroyed Chapman", 3/5/02).
If a parent seems too concerned about test scores, teachers should address the issue of not participating in the program before testing.
- Parents should indicate that they feel comfortable with the possibility that a child might not qualify and might not participate in the program.
- If a parent is too intense, it is time to bring in the guidance office.
- Test results for a "soccer mom on crack" should be given in person, and the teacher should have a neutral tone on the phone.
- It is important that the teacher share some strengths the child exhibits outside of "giftedness", and stress what the test does not indicate: future success.
Most schools offer retesting after a certain period of time if test scores have questionable validity, and the Chapmans will certainly choose retesting. Parents who equate giftedness with scholarships to Ivy League schools are missing the elements of hard work, personality, and involvement in outside activities that make a child well rounded.
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