Dr. Stanley Coren - Early Academics

Young Stanley’s mother taught him to read when he was very young. He says, “By the time I started kindergarten I already had my own library card and was checking books out of the library…I adored reading.” Being such an intelligent child, Stanley was often bored and punished for disturbing class. During these times, he would hide a book in his jacket and read while waiting out his punishment!

Dr. Coren enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania’s honors Physics program, but soon discovered that modern physics wasn’t for him. He described the concept of physics as he was learning it as using balls and inclined planes to describe the world rather than observation. He said, “The idea that somehow or another I could spend my life never actually seeing the stuff that I was studying because it was too small or too remote really bothered me.” So, Stanley took an introductory psychology class he described as “to die for” because each section was taught but a different professor who was a “superstar” in that area of research.