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William James Sidis Is Recognized As the Person with the Highest IQ Ever

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William James Sidis Is Recognized As the Person with the Highest IQ Ever Smarter Than Einstein? William James Sidis t was a bright January morning in 1910 when hundreds of leading professors and is recognized as Imathematicians from the prestigious Harvard University gathered in the great the person with the lecture hall on their campus in Cambridge, highest IQ ever tested. Massachusetts, to listen to a lecturer named He was acknowledged time speaking in public and his address got offWilliam to a Jamesbad start. Sidis. He For spoke Sidis itrather was hisquietly first as a budding genius and nervously, punctuating his speech with churlish grins, just like a child speaking at the age of two and before a large audience of adults. delivered lectures for In fact, Sidis was a child—he was 11 years old at the time! renowned professors Progressing through his speech, the boy became more self-assured. As the audience at the age of eleven. picked up more of what he was saying, Despite all the their eyes bulged and jaws dropped in amazement. Sidis was lecturing on a highly predictions about only to top mathematicians. Not even all the his bright future professorsdeveloped scientificin this group theme of that chosen was listeners familiar could follow the youth’s complex line of as an academician, reasoning. Sidis confounded As the boy concluded his address, a professor told the reporters who had the pundits when he gathered to cover the lecture that this young man, William James Sidis, would pursued a completely undoubtedly go on to become one of the different course in greatest mathematicians in history. The national headlines the following day life than anyone had screamed about the child sensation. - Dov Levy imagined. made the headlines around the nation. He In fact, it wasn’t the first time this prodigy 64 | ZMAN • November 2011 ZMAN • Cheshvan 5772 | 65 had already aroused the public’s interest proudly reported that their infant son several years before when his astounding development of the young William James: had mastered the use of a spoon after two particular belief that greatly influenced the months of effort (most children do not more readily incorporates new information master this talent before the age of three). abilities as a young child first came to light. atBoris a very Sidis young was age, convinced the earlier that the thebetter. mind He was also on the level of a four-year-old From the Cradle On April 1, 1898, the Sidis family was boy in identifying symbols and pictures. William James Sidis was born to Jewish blessed with the arrival of their new son, parents who hailed from Kiev, Ukraine. whom they named William James, after one child’s curiosity should be aggressively Life in Russia under Czar Alexander III was of the most famous thinkers of the time and developedBecause and of encouraged,the Sidis’ Sarahbelief gavethat upa whom the elder Sidis had studied under. her career in the medical world to devote an area called the Pale of Settlement, lived herself fully to her infant’s progress. She Right: Boris Sidis. Left: William James Sidis as a young boy. inhorrific dire forpoverty, Jews. Theywere hadforbidden been limited to own to had been born into a laboratory and the responded to every sign of interest in her property or engage in work on Sunday and fatherFriends now of thehad familya subject joked on whomthat the to testboy other Christian holidays, and were the target his various theories of psychology and the birthday, William James was perfecting his graduated and was ready to begin high school. of numerous other laws enacted with the development of the human mind. Shortly knowledgeson, and by of the English time spelling.he reached At 18his months first Hisat age teachers five, but gaped just overat how six monthshe mastered later hein express purpose of making life miserable he was reading the New York Times. half a year what the other students learned for the empire’s Jews. On top of all that, parents began working on his development, over a period of seven years. government-incited pogroms also occurred intentionallyafter the boy bombarding first opened him his witheyes, newhis at a fairly regular and alarming rate. information that his tender mind soaked up In the High Chair immediately. While sitting in his high chair, William Russian,By the German, age of eightTurkish, Sidis Armenianhad mastered and spent two years in prison, primarily because Using the wooden blocks of the mobile James learned to use a typewriter to type Hebrew.eight languages: He also Latin,conversed Greek, in aFrench, ninth he hadBoris made Sidis the himself mistake wasof being arrested born a andJew language, but this was a language he himself in Czarist Russia. Like so many other Jews of William James the letters of the alphabet, letter to a company to order a particular had created in a book he wrote (actually that time and locale, he decided he had had usingthat hungvarious over techniques the cradle, to coax Boris the taughtinfant toyin English he was interestedand French. in. HeNews typed of the his child’s own the second one he authored). Called enough of the old country and immigrated to into verbalizing the names of the letters. incredible abilities leaked to the press and “Vandergood” by its inventor, this language Their efforts bore fruit. At six months, reporters began visiting to observe the boy, was based largely on Latin and Greek with in 1887 after barely escaping a pogrom. William spoke the word “door” and a take his picture and write articles about America,Two years the later, land hisof thewife free. Sarah Boris and arrived their month letter he pointed to the sky and him. He even appeared on the front page of languages mixed in. In his language, the children followed him to New York City. said “moon.” At eight months, the parents the newspaper he himself read, the New York youngelements Sidis of differentiatedGerman, French between and sevenother Times. accepted conjugations and created an eighth English language fairly quickly and he then The toddler quickly outgrew any interest of his own. wentIn America,on to study Boris psychology. Sidis picked He becameup the in toys. He preferred to spend his time William James also created a new with his father. As they rode together on logarithmic table based on the number 12 a tome on the subject of diagnosing rather than 10 as in the commonly used aand master treating in the various field and ailments even authored of the names of the streets and sights they passed, decimal system. The preference for the mind. Mrs. Sidis also was well educated andthe trolley,even explained Boris taught to him William how theJames trolley the number 12 is because it is the smallest and became one of the few women in operated and the system for transferring number with 4 different factors. If you are America at the time to earn a medical among our readers whose level of math degree. does not allow them to follow the inherent Despite their genius, the Sidises timesfrom oneand linestops to on another. the rather Before complicated the age logic in that statement, don’t worry: most were viewed with a measure of trolleyof five, timetable.William James could repeat all the skepticism by most of their peers. The boy’s thirst for new information Sidis did understand and mathematicians was endless, and he could read through areAmericans inclined areto agree right with there him. with you. But entire volumes on advanced subjects such The elder Sidis wrote several articles Muchhypnosis of Boris’ and group research psychology. took place Mr. as medicine or physics. He enjoyed spending inSidis an wasundeveloped also a revolutionary field, including in the time with calendars and invented his own development and progress and the methods development and use of hypnosis technique for calculating which day of the hefor hadscientific used. journals He took describing full credit his forchild’s his for dealing with psychiatric week a particular date occurred any time in son’s outstanding abilities and brought the problems. the last 5,000 years. child as clear proof of the truth behind his The elder Sidis had one Czar Alexander III, a rabid anti-Semite. William James began elementary school theories of childrearing. 66 | ZMAN • November 2011 ZMAN • Cheshvan 5772 | 67.
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