Stephen, Thanks for this timely update. I have occasionally used the "Secret of the Wild Child" as a "wrap up" to my first year course. I'll begin showing it today. There are so many issues that are relevant to the many topics covered across a first year course - e.g., research methodology, ethics, language theory, history of psychology, consciousness, development, etc.
Shannon Gadbois -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 8:39 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Genie news I've just replied to an e-mail inquiry from a high school teacher concerning whether Genie, the tragic "wild child" of California, has died. Not being a world authority on her case, I'm not sure why the question was directed at me. Possibly the teacher is a long-time lurker on TIPS, or retrieved one of my TIPS posts through the magic of Google. In any case, I told her I had no information on Genie's death, although I believed that Jean Butler, Genie's one-time teacher, and also Genie's mother, have both died. Here's the news part. I tried my own Google search on the question. I discovered that in 2005 David Rigler, the hapless primary investigator of the team studying Genie, transferred all his Genie-related materials to Susan Curtiss. She was (at that time) the graduate student who, by general agreement, produced the only scientifically-useful information on this sorry case, published as the book _Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern Day "Wild Child_." (1977). Curtiss in turn donated the collection to the UCLA library in 2006, where it is available with permission of the library for study. It apparently includes the neglected videotapes shot by David Rigler which were salvaged by the NOVA TV crew, and some of which were subsequently incorporated into their documentary "Secret of the Wild Child" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html ). Nothing is available on-line, but the catalogue listing of the holdings are themselves interesting to browse through. See http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt0q2nc69q&chunk.id=did- 1.2.1&brand=oac or http://tinyurl.com/234nun On the question of Genie's death, the catalogue says this (under "Biography"): "Although not indicated in the collection files, according to Russ Rymer.... by the early 1990s Genie was living in an adult home for the mentally retarded, where it is believed she remains in 2006." BTW, Genie's identity has been uncovered, and as it's now all over the Internet, there's no reason not to mention it here. This unfortunate woman's real name is Susan M. Wiley. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- ---
