Anyone with an interest in the problems of highly creative children
will find this volume useful in guiding a wide range of creative talent at
all age and educational levels. In preparing this material, I have drawn
most heavily upon my own research and that of my colleagues concern-
ing the creative thinking of children, adolescents, and adults. Although
my emphasis is upon the problems of highly creative children, I believe
you will find these materials useful in guiding a wide range of creative
talent at all age and educational levels. I have also attempted to give
these research findings and observations meaning from my experience
as a teacher, counselor, and principal in a high school and as a college
teacher and counselor, roles in which I have met many highly creative
individuals. I have also drawn upon my research concerning behavior
under emergency and extreme conditions, especially situations involving
coercion.

In the first chapter, I have attempted to tell why you should be con-
cerned about effectively guiding highly creative individuals. I have also
tried to describe the nature of the unique guidance needs of highly
creative individuals.

In the second chapter, I have presented material concerning the assess-
ment of creative talent and growth. In this chapter, I have reviewed a
number of definitions of creative thinking and have stated the one which
has guided our research in the Bureau of Educational Research at the
University of Minnesota. I have pointed out some of the deficiencies of
traditional measures of intellectual talent and personality to call atten-
tion to the need for supplementing these measures with instruments in-
volving the creative thinking abilities and characteristics of the creative
personality. Then, I have reviewed the long, interesting, and not very
well-known history of the development of tests of creative thinking.

In the third chapter, I have described most of the Minnesota Tests of
Creative Thinking and presented some of the reasoning behind them. I

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