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The Reed prescription has been almost deceptively simple: three excellent teachers, bright kids, parental backing and tough-minded adherence to some of the eternal verities of learning. Fitz-Gibbon launched Reed's IHP in 1971 after getting permission for the program from then Principal Phillip Johnson. To the IHP staff, the principal added Mertens and a first-rate English teacher, Judith Selsor, both already at Reed. Fitz-Gibbon got permission from district authorities to accept eager youngsters with IQs of at least 145 from the entire Los Angeles school system. From the start, the only extra funding was a bonus $50 to $90 per pupil per year from the state and district. This is the same sum granted for gifted students in ordinary public schools and in the so-called magnet schools, whose primary purpose is desegregation.
Unlike the magnet schools, however, IHP is color-blind. Says Mertens: "We don't even know the race or nationality of the students when they apply." Also, the curriculum of the IHP is much more highly structured than those at the magnet schools. All students must take Latin. Seventh-graders plunge into a math program that combines straight computation with sophisticated problems in symbolic logic. In most cases, standard textbooks have been all but abandoned. "We have lots of writing and reading from original sources," says Mertens of the social studies program. "We don't read about Marx; we read the Communist Manifesto." Science, along with math, is an across-the- board requirement, and many of the classes are formidable in content. Says Fitz-Gibbon: "Nothing I teach here, calculus, physics, chemistry, is taught in a normal junior high."
Every student must keep a running journal for English class, and substantial entries (short stories, poems, personal observations) are required. Eighth- graders must also develop study-project notebooks, dealing with such subjects as women's suffrage, the cold war, the Depression. Says Student Michael Nassir, 14: "There's enough variety in the school-work that it never gets boring." The students are aware, however, of feelings of resentment from their less gifted classmates. Says Sayuri Sayuridesai, 14: "They think we're nerds with calculators on our belts and thick glasses."
One problem with IHP is that many of its graduates tend to be unchallenged by high school and, says Fitz-Gibbon, "just tread water for two or three years until they go off to Harvard or Caltech." Another difficulty stems from the hostility of local egalitarians toward the elitism of IHP. This contravening view does not carry much weight with IHP teachers. "To put these highly gifted students in a regular classroom would be to punish them and hold them back," protests Mertens. "Some people think democracy means being absolutely equal and having the same curriculum for each student. But in a real democracy, we owe to each individual the opportunity to develop his talents to the utmost."