Programming for the Academically Gifted

Abstract

Richard Lester's early Beatle movie, A Hard Day's Night, had an extraordinary impact on modern film making. This article has been written to suggest that it might also have something valid to say to us in the business of devising and defending special programs for academically talented children and youth.

A character in the movie, Paul McCartney's grandfather, is very much in the tradition of the “dirty old man.” At one point he says to a book-reading Ringo, “Any organ not in constant use atrophies and falls off.” Now, it is obvious, as the camera focuses in closely on Ringo's expressive face, that Paul's grandad is not speaking of the brain as the organ which ought to be kept in constant use. Ringo puts down his book and promptly goes out “parading.”