Gus Dorman, 5-Year-Old Kid, Becomes Mensa Member; Parents Can't Find A Gifted School
Gus Dorman is not your average 5-year-old boy. While his classmates are just learning the ABCs at Renfro Elementary School in Illinois, he has already read "Charlotte's Web," has solved second-grade math problems, and has continued to feed his mind with books on science and geography.
"He got into an argument with me because I told him that the capital of Alaska is Anchorage," Gus' father Robert Dorman told ABC News. "But it's not, it's Juneau."
At 18 months when Gus was being potty trained, he began bringing newspapers and copies of "Wired" magazine into the bathroom to read.
When the family went on a camping trip and realized Gus was reading at a rate better than another 5-year-old, they took him to get an IQ test, based on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, where he scored 99 percentile in 7 of the 8 categories. The score garnered him another feat-getting membership in Mensa, an exclusive high IQ society that requires at least a 135 IQ. Gus' IQ is 147.
To date there are 110,000 Mensa members from 100 countries, with the youngest at 3 years of age.
While Gus' story is unique, his parents are worried about his education. Frankly, he doesn't enjoy school.
"They teach me stuff I already know," Gus told Suburban Journals about his kindergarten curriculum.
"He's so far advanced, he is bored and he gets into trouble," Dorman said. "He thinks he's a bad kid but he just needs to be challenged."
His parent say they're not sure how to fulfill his educational needs. However, they are looking into applying to gifted schools for him. The problem is that their Board of Education in Illinois cut funding for gifted student programs, making it harder to find the one.
Gus isn't the only child having difficulty finding a gifted program.
Racial gaps are also a growing concern in gifted programs, exemplified in Chesapeake, Virginia, where blacks are underrepresented and whites are overrepresented. The gifted programs were never limited to one ethic group, but experts questioned whether the gap was due to lower prospects for blacks.
To close the gap, education experts realized that teachers and parents need to recognize hints of "child giftedness."
Other issues that prevent gifted kids from progressing include poverty and the unfamiliarity with "giftedness" in certain cultures and communities.