If We’d Only Known They Needed It

We all know about the importance of the family. Preachers preach, politicians pontificate, educators expound, and social workers substantiate that dysfunction and dereliction can destroy the latent potential in a child.

Malcolm Gladwell recounts the story of a life-long research project conducted by Dr. Lewis Terman, professor of psychology at Stanford University in the 1930s. He selected a group of young individuals whose IQ scores classified them as geniuses, and then he tracked their progress and development into their adulthood.

His hypothesis was that this group, which became known as Terman’s Termites, would become CEOs, top scientists, and global leaders because their intellect was vastly superior to virtually everyone else in the world.

After studying this group well into their 20s and 30s, the results were quite shocking. What Terman discovered is that part of the group did excel, but the majority of the group lived relatively normal lives with nothing considered “exceptional,” and part of the group failed even to achieve that.

What was the difference between those who excelled and those who didn’t? Terman ran through every conceivable explanation: physical and mental health, hobbies and vocational interests, intellectual acumen. “In the end, only one thing mattered: family background” (Outliers, 111).

The children who grew up with relatively low life accomplishment or success didn’t lack something impossible to find; it was not an element encoded in DNA or hardwired into the circuits of their brain. “They lacked something that could have been given to them if we’d only known they needed it: a community around them that prepared them properly for the world” (ibid., 112).

It appears that a child’s IQ is not the primary indicator of future success. But a family who loves and cares for a child is. For those who did not come from a healthy home, however, don’t lose heart. When Jesus looked around at the crowd one day, He stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!” (Matthew 12:49).

God has implanted His DNA in the body of Christ where we are a family He sought us. He found us. He saved us. He sustains us. He lovingly and tenaciously watches over us. To be a member of the family of God means to be secure and confident. 

You have a role in this as do I. We can help prepare others properly for the world … and beyond. We can no longer say “if only we’d known they needed it.” While we continue to support and uphold the importance of family, let’s also strive to welcome people into God’s family, because that has far greater impact in determining one’s value, significance, and success than his or her IQ.