and to avoid the risks involved in admitting unconventional students, particularly those who are younger than most and who have had a less-than-normal high school preparation. It will be all too easy to say, "We'll get them next year anyhow, and another year in high school won't hurt them." But the evidence clearly indicates that the superior student can be hurt by being detained in an intellectual environment he has outgrown. As one Scholar wrote in his senior essay: "I don't advocate anything so radical as a society composed exclusively of eggheads, but it seems downright cruel to force a gifted child to suffer needless years of boredom (and boredom can be suffering, I know) when he can have an opportunity (whether or not he utilizes it is obviously up to him) to meet some fine minds on a college faculty which might be able to salvage at least part of his intellectual potential before the habit of mental laziness has completely encrusted him."

The notion that the superior student does not need special attention because he is bright enough to look out for himself is still widely prevalent, but an increasing number of thoughtful educators and laymen have begun to challenge it and the assumption that regardless of ability and energy each student must move with his chronological age group through eight years of elementary school, four years of high school, and four years of college. Coupled with this has been a critical re-examination of the meaning of educational equality in a democratic society—a questioning as to whether it means equal amounts of education for all or equal opportunity for each individual to develop his talents as fully and freely as possible.

There is also a growing awareness that the health and vigor of our society—and indeed even its very life—depend on making the most of all the capacities of all of our people. And it has become increasingly clear that if we are to make the most of these capacities, we must not fail to provide for the fullest possible development of our ablest young people. The Fund for the Advancement of Education believes that the Early Admission experiment has clearly demonstrated its promise as a means to that end.