Ten years ago, in 2001, the U.S. Congress enacted the "No Child Left behind Act" (NCLB). This landmark act focused on standards-based education with the goal of raising challenges and improving student achievement. Advocates for gifted children have been concerned over the law's silence regarding talented and high-achieving children. In the first…

India--the country of call centers and palaces, of monsoons and millions, of magnificent wealth and abject poverty--has fascinated travelers for thousands of years. Today India, along with China, is emerging as a strong business rival to the United States. The author has spent about 6 months during 2011 and 2012 in India as a visiting lecturer as…

Gifted education has many challenges, and gifted programs sometimes throw up significant roadblocks. But passionate teachers can still make a difference in developing the gifts of the children. In this article, the author summarizes the challenges teachers face in serving gifted students and the roadblocks preventing a strong, supportive gifted…

The author's introductory course, "Nature and Needs of the Gifted," was unusual in the Fall semester this year because for the first time in a long time, most of her students had no background at all in gifted education. Teachers in her class were highly motivated and wanted to learn. They seemed to care about meeting the needs of the gifted, but…

The headlines were shocking: "Nine Teens Charged With Bullying in Girl's Suicide." The details were difficult to read and even more troubling to think about. Unfortunately, bullying behavior is not just an adolescent phenomenon. Patricia Shuler remembered being in a second-grade classroom when a normally quiet boy screamed out, "Shut up! Stop…

This article describes the experiences of a second grade teacher who teaches in a heterogeneous bilingual classroom in a large district, and his assignment in a graduate class to conduct action research. This teacher was concerned about the academic performance and motivation of two gifted, but underachieving Hispanic boys in his class. Both of…

So, "What makes a teacher of the gifted great?" First of all, they establish an atmosphere that fosters critical thinking about questions students find interesting and provocative. "Critical thinking" included making decisions, defending choices, reasoning from evidence, examining quality, and making improvements all reinforced by ongoing teacher…

Teachers are faced with the challenge of making sure that their gifted students are not forgotten. This document shares three separate accounts of how three individuals assisted to better develop the talents of gifted students. The first account describes a counselor in a rural school district who selected three middle school students and took…

This article explores different teaching styles, including instructional managers (who focus on orchestrating sets of activities for groups and individuals), caring persons (who are more deeply concerned about how the work of the classroom contributes to the students' growth as individuals), or generous experts (who act as mentors). (Contains 1…

This article discusses the experiences gifted secondary students have had with pre-Advanced Placement, Advanced Placement, and International Baccalaureate programs. Key traits essential for teachers of the gifted are identified: a high degree of intelligence; extensive knowledge of the subject matter; emotional maturity; and a strong self-concept.…

This article describes critical events that have shaped gifted education, including: intelligence testing, the concept of intelligence, the construct of creativity, greater understanding of brain functions, the work of John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, and Leta Hollingworth, school reform, world change, and the shift from identification to meeting…