Forever
Altered
Mentor, hero, inspiration: Hopkins teachers who have left
their mark
"I was an academically bored, frequently misbehaving 13-
year-old languishing in a suburban public school in 1972
when I first met Dr. Julian Stanley, founder of the
Center for Talented
Youth. He was 55 years old — advanced in age for
a psychologist to begin a second career as a counselor for
and advocate of mathematically advanced youngsters. But he
believed in his cause — there was an injustice being
done to gifted students by minimally tracked,
heterogeneously grouped classrooms.
"Before Bill Gates and the Silicon Valley explosion made
brains popular, Dr. Stanley sought to provide his students
with a refuge of challenge, an intellectual home, and a
community of our own. He was a genteel cheerleader for our
cause, a believer in our abilities. Quite frankly, his
earnestness and his prescription for radical academic
acceleration scared me. Nevertheless, only three years
later, I was his advisee.
"When I initially listed my major as 'Undecided,' he
suggested, instead, 'Confused,' which was far more
accurate. Offering reams of facts and inescapable logic, he
delivered his advice in such a charming and avuncular way
that it was hard not to agree with him. His primary message
was to reach for the brass ring and realize that our only
limitations are those we place on ourselves.
"This message of determination, self-reliance, and self-
confidence delivered first to a suspicious boy and later to
an appreciative man, found its mark. Because of Dr. Stanley
I still face every challenge with 'why not?' And I look
forward, when I am 55, to finding a new pursuit that will
hold even a candle to Dr. Stanley's second career."
Julian Stanley passed away on August 12. He was
87.
A.J. Shechtel, BA/BES '79, lives in Princeton, New
Jersey, where he provides quantitative financial advice to
nonprofits.