In this article, the author states that gifted student population is itself diverse, with variability in intensity, maturity, risk-taking, creativity and degree of giftedness, among other traits. Appropriate services are equivalent to a life preserver; the opportunity to spend time with others who are sufficiently similar in ability, interests and maturity provide the first true peer context and allow students to flourish. Furthermore, she states that although no two school districts deliver gifted education programs or services in the same way due to variables such as ages of students served, content-area focus, available resources and population demographics, the foundation of gifted education is the belief that student learning should be calibrated to the child's abilities and interests rather than the child's age. For high-quality programs and services, this belief becomes a reality through a range of service delivery options to accommodate individual learning differences. Thus, to be successful, gifted education should not be viewed as a separate, stand-alone, isolated program for "those students." Rather, gifted education strategies and teacher training, ideally, are incorporated into the district's overall goals and budget.