Bullying has been an ongoing problem for students, but the issue is becoming more critical with changes in the society and the school systems. A bully is no longer "a person who hurts, frightens, threatens, or tyrannizes over those who are smaller or weaker". According to Tracy Cross, the definition of a bully now is evolving to include any person…

Homeschooling parents worry a lot. And homeschooling parents of gifted children seem to worry even more than most. Parents who homeschool intense, smart, sensitive, and perfectionist children and teens are often themselves intense, smart, sensitive, and perfectionistic, even if they don't always think of themselves as gifted. One shouldn't be too…

Gifted children are children first, and they have educational and social-emotional needs that run all over the map. Anyone who knows gifted children is familiar with the sudden shifts within a child who might be doing high school level scientific study, handwriting at a third grade level, display the wit and wisdom of a middle aged adult, and…

When the author started homeschooling, she would listen jealously as other parents discussed curriculum for reading and math, two subjects that her daughter never needed any instruction in as a young child. She was eager to try out curriculum, but her visual spatial daughter was not quite ready for learning on paper. She found out that searching…

The author is the proud parent of The Most Complex Child on the Planet[TM]. This has been confirmed by numerous teachers, administrators, doctors, therapists, specialists, friends, family members, and random strangers on the street. She has accepted her son's complexity (mostly) and is trying to work with it instead of against it. Now she is…

How do teachers teach gifted students whose emotional age trails their chronological age? How can they integrate those students into their classes so that these students mature while not detracting from the learning of the other students? In this article, the author offers pieces of advice on teaching gifted students whose emotional ages trail…

In this article, the author talks about building resilience--that ability to push through hardship to success, to rebound from failure, and to "keep on keepin' on" when things seem impossible. The author assert that lots of gifted and talented kids need help building their resilience. In today's world, when striving for mediocrity can seem like…

Currently, American schooling, driven by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and standardized tests, emphasizes development of intelligence. Because of this, teachers must heavily emphasize acquisition of foundational information (facts) in lectures, assessments, and of course, time-consuming test preparation, at the expense of intellect, that…

Acceleration is one of the best researched interventions for gifted students. The author is an advocate of acceleration. However, advocating for the thoughtful, carefully judged employment of a procedure with well researched effectiveness does not imply approval of cases where the procedure is used without sufficient thought--especially where it…

Emily was then in kindergarten age when a nationally recognized, local center for gifted children confirmed she was gifted, and her comprehension and technical skills were those of a 3rd grader. Emily's parents, who were concerned because nobody at school cared about her needs, called the author, the school's headmaster, to inform him about their…

The author's 12-year-old 8th grader took the bulk of his courses at their local high school. To maintain contact with his age peers, he was bused to the middle school two days a week to eat lunch with his friends, practice in the school band, and take gym and health classes. This was part of a succession of unique acceleration strategies created…

The author is an enthusiastic supporter of using young adult literature in the classroom with gifted learners--so much, that he has been accused of being "against" the classics. Not so, but he does ask about and challenges teachers to tell him if their classroom use of the classics is appropriate. Do the classics provide the kind of interaction…

In "Bird by Bird", Anne Lamott compares writing to a tea ceremony: "That thing you had to force yourself to do--the actual act of writing, turns out to be the best part. It's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own…

Conversations with Josh, a mentee of the author, and other gifted students caused the author to realize that in many cases, what is presented as appropriately differentiated language arts curriculum for gifted/talented students is nothing more than general education curriculum with additional work at the same level as the regular curriculum. If…

One of the popular misconceptions about giftedness is that the gifted label is a benefit. It is probably a fixed blessing at best and can bring unexpected problems to children, their families, and their teachers. Children who are labeled gifted often have uncertain feelings about the designation and the whole "gifted" experience, if not…