in the 1920s, hollingworth's interests shifted to the study of children, especially those with mental gifts. due to the efforts of lewis madison terman and his associates, intelligence testing and ability grouping had made their way in public schools as common practices by the 1930s. terman believed that such intelligence testing was crucial for identifying gifted individuals so that they would receive special attention, be helped to reach their full potential, and become strong members of society. he believed that democracy would benefit from differentiating between the educational experiences of these gifted individuals and the educational experiences of non-gifted individuals. although he believed strongly in these ideas, terman spent little time making concrete suggestions concerning how the school curriculum should be changed in order to meet the specific needs of gifted children. leta stetter hollingworth, however, was active in developing educational strategies concerning the development of gifted students. much of her work was conducted at the same time as terman's and although the two never met, they had great respect for each other.