CHILD-REARING, EXPECTATIONS OF

Psychologists have discovered that children respond according to how they are treated. In a scientific experiment, a particular teacher was told that half of her students were exceptional, while the others were average. After a year, the students she was told were superior had improved a full grade beyond the other half (those she was told were only average). The interesting factor was that all the students were exactly equal intellectually. The two groups were different only in the teacher’s mind and her treatment of them. The results were obvious and inevitable. Those she thought were exceptional became exceptional, and those she thought were average became average.115