Editing Cyril Burt (section)

==Childhood and education==
Burt was born on 3 March 1883, the first child of Cyril Cecil Barrow Burt (b. 1857), a medical practitioner, and his wife, Martha Decina Evans.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Hearnshaw
| first = Leslie Spencer
| title = Cyril Burt, Psychologist
| publisher = Hodder and Stoughton
| year = 1979
| location = London
| isbn = 978-0-8014-1244-8
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/cyrilburtpsychol00lshe
}}</ref> He was born in London (some sources give his place of birth as [[Stratford-upon-Avon]], probably because his entry in ''[[Who's Who (UK)|Who's Who]]'' gave his father's address as [[Snitterfield]], Stratford; in fact the Burt family moved to Snitterfield when he was ten).<ref>Hearnshaw (1979), p. 2. {{ODNBweb|id=30880|title=Burt, Sir Cyril Lodowic|last=Mazumdar|first=Pauline H.}}.
{{cite book
| last = Joynson
| first = Robert Billington
| title = The Burt Affair
| publisher = Routledge
| year = 1989
| location = London
| isbn = 978-0-415-01039-9
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/burtaffair0000joyn
}}</ref><ref>The birth of Cyril Lodowic Burt was recorded in the General Register Office (now part of the Office for National Statistics) index of births in England and Wales for the June quarter of 1883:-''BURT, Cyril Lodowic St. Geo. H. Sq. 1a 486'' (The Registration district was St. Georges, Hanover Square, which included parts of Westminster)</ref>

Burt's father initially kept a chemist shop to support his family while he studied medicine. On qualifying, he became the assistant house surgeon and obstetrical assistant at [[Westminster Hospital]], London.<ref name="Hearnshaw, 1979, p2">Hearnshaw (1979), p. 2.</ref> The younger Cyril Burt's education began in London at a [[Board school]] near [[St James's Park]].<ref name="Hearnshaw, 1979, p2"/>

In 1890, the family briefly moved to Jersey then to [[Snitterfield]], [[Warwickshire]], in 1893, where Burt's father opened a rural practice.<ref name="Hearnshaw, 1979, p2"/> Early in Burt's life he showed a precocious nature, so much so that his father often took the young Burt with him on his medical rounds.<ref>Hearnshaw (1979), p. 7.</ref>

One of the elder Burt's more famous patients was Darwin Galton, brother of [[Francis Galton]]. The visits the Burts made to the Galton estate not only allowed the young Burt to learn about the work of Francis Galton, but also allowed Burt to meet him on multiple occasions and to be strongly drawn to his ideas; especially his studies in statistics and individual differences, two defining characters of the London School of Psychology whose membership includes both Galton and Burt.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

He attended King's (now known as [[Warwick School|Warwick]]) School, in the [[county town]], from 1892 to 1895, and later won a scholarship to [[Christ's Hospital]], then located in London, where he developed his interest in psychology.<ref name="Oxford University Press">{{cite encyclopedia
  | title = Burt, Sir Cyril Lodowic (1883–1971)
  | encyclopedia = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  | publisher = Oxford University Press
  | year=  2006 }}</ref>

From 1902, he attended [[Jesus College, Oxford]], where he studied Classics and took an interest in philosophy and psychology, the latter under [[William McDougall (psychologist)|William McDougall]]. McDougall, knowing Burt's interest in Galton's work, taught him the elements of psychometrics, thus helping Burt with his first steps in the development and structure of mental tests, an interest that would last the rest of his life. Burt was one of a group of students who worked with McDougall, which included [[William Brown (psychologist)|William Brown]], [[John Flügel]], and [[May Smith (psychologist)|May Smith]], who all went on to have distinguished careers in psychology.<ref>Hearnshaw (1979), p. 11.</ref>

Burt graduated with second-class honours in Literae Humaniores (Classics) in 1906, taking a special paper in psychology in his Final Examinations. He subsequently supplemented his BA with a teaching diploma.

In 1907, McDougall invited Burt to help with a nationwide survey of physical and mental characteristics of the British people, proposed by Francis Galton, in which he was to work on the standardization of psychological tests. This work brought Burt into contact with [[eugenics]], [[Charles Spearman]], and [[Karl Pearson]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In the summer of 1908, Burt visited the [[University of Würzburg]], Germany, where he first met the psychologist [[Oswald Külpe]].<ref>Hearnshaw (1979), p. 13.</ref>