Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Old news that's new to me: Justin Chapman

Is this the most recent case of a fake PG child? It seems like an extremely rare phenomenon.

Agreed.

I can't even remotely identify with so much of her behavior-- even leading up TO that point. To the point that I have trouble identifying with ANY of it.

Pushing or hot housing a child is one thing (not unethical though not desirable). But, copying your neighbor's son's SAT scores and claiming them as your son's, emailing "experts" posing as your son etc are acts of a parent who is deranged and has lost perspective. I do think that this child is very gifted to be able to make so many presentations in conferences in front of so many "experts" and sound convincing enough to fool them all.
I remember Justin's story from a long time ago and never followed it up. Wondering if he is doing well now (he must be an adult by now?).

A very old thread that was bumped!

An extremely rare phenomenon, but also extremely potentially damaging to bright children who DO need something different.

I suspect that this case was merely the most extreme to date. Otherwise, if you think about all the test prep that goes into admissions for gifted schools, crafting a gifted child is a common phenomenon. Think about it: the kindergarten test prep industry in New York City is huge. Most of these people are probably faking up MG children, but I suspect that more people would fake HG+ if they could get away with it.

And let's not forget that everyone has to go to college and everyone has to be HG+ in many American high schools. This trend presumably leads many parental units to test prep, giftedness fakery, and all sorts of other educational malfeasance.

In reading the story in the Denver paper, I was surprised that so many people seem to have ignored so many bright red flags: his first college class was the same one his mother was taking, she was answering for him during an IQ test (?!?), a lot of his learning was done online (i.e., easy for mom to do the work), there was no test center listed on his SAT scores, etc. etc.

And an IQ of 298? On a Wechsler exam? How could anyone have taken that number seriously? How would you even test for it using the standard exams, which falter at scores way, way below 200? According to this table of IQ percentiles, an IQ of 202 is expected in one person in nearly 200 billion. I suspect that this number isn't accurate (otherwise, Marilyn vos Savant and Chris Langan being alive at the same time in this general area of our galaxy would be statistical impossibilities), but it gives an idea of how rare a score of 298 would be (unless there really are crazy smart Vulcans living in the 40 Eridani A star system, that is).

I agree WRT that particular case. (Even if he had turned out to be a super-genius, and she hadn't faked anything. Speaking engagements? Press interviews? College at age 6? WTF?) I was thinking more of the 2008 dicussion that resulted among members of this board.

The frustrating thing about someone who so publicly fakes this is how it affects the kids that are HG+. It's bad press and can set up a lot of skepticism in teachers, administrators and other parents.

That is such a sad story! That poor kid.

Okay, it's the extremely rare tip of a much larger, less extreme iceberg.

The score was from the Stanford Binet L-M -- see http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/justin/3.shtml .