Raising some of the most challenging questions in the field, this call-to-arms focuses on the important services gifted programs provide, the potential crisis gifted educators face, and what must be done to keep the gifted child movement alive and well. Key features include: (1) James J. Gallagher's unflinching account of the issues that continue to plague gifted education reform efforts, and his recommendations for addressing these issues: (2) Eleven influential articles from leading researchers in the field of gifted education; and (3) A study on how the elimination of gifted and talented programming impacts participating students and their parents. This ready-reference offers the extensive research, insight, and guidance of top authorities in gifted education, and is designed to help educators fight for the resources necessary to ensure appropriate services for gifted students. The ERGE Series: The National Association for Gifted Children series Essential Readings in Gifted Education is a 12-volume collection of seminal articles from Gifted Child Quarterly. Put the knowledge and power of more than 25 years of research on giftedness and talent into your hands with the leading theories, studies, and findings the experts in the field have to offer. Following a series introduction (Sally M. Reis) and a Introduction to Public Policy in Gifted Education (James J. Gallagher), this book contains eleven chapters: (1) The Reform Movement and the Quiet Crisis in Gifted Education (Joseph S. Renzulli, Sally M. Reis); (2) Unthinkable Thoughts: Education of Gifted Students (James J. Gallagher); (3) Perennial Debates and Tacit Assumptions in the Education of Gifted Children (Laurence J. Coleman, Michael D. Sanders, and Tracy L. Cross); (4) Perceptions of Educational Reform by Educators Representing Middle Schools, Cooperative Learning, and Gifted Education (James J. Gallagher, Mary Ruth Coleman, and Susanne Nelson); (5) The Effects of the Elimination of Gifted and Talented Programs on Participating Students and Their Parents (Jeanne H. Purcell); (6) Precocious Reading Ability: What Does It Mean? (Nancy Ewald Jackson); (7) Contributions of Gifted Education to General Education In a Time of Change (Carol Ann Tomlinson and Carolyn M. Callahan); (8) Are Teachers of the Gifted Specialists? A Landmark Decision on Employment Practices in Special Education for the Gifted (Joseph S. Renzulli); (9) "Being a Teacher": Emotions and Optimal Experience While Teaching Gifted Children (Laurence J. Coleman); (10) For the Good of Humankind: Matching the Budding Talent with a Curriculum of Conscience (Carolyn R. Cooper); and (11) Will the Gifted Child Movement Be Alive and Well in 1990? (Joseph S. Renzulli). This book concludes with an index.