Who Are the “Gifted” Children — and How Should Schools Handle Them?
A “gifted” child in one community might not be “gifted” in another community. Should the “gifted” label be standardized across communities? Do “gifted” children deserve the same extra attention that other children with special labels get? Education World addresses those and other questions. It happened again yesterday. I walked into a room and, when asked what I did, I mentioned that I taught the gifted. What a reaction! There is so much controversy surrounding gifted education. Some virulently attack it as elitist. Others just as staunchly support it. Perhaps it would be a less contentious issue if educators could just agree on which group of a school’s population we are referring to when we say the word “gifted.” Gifted students are those in the top 3 percent of the school’s population. That’s how Patti Bricker, the coordinator of gifted programs in Grove City, Ohio, defined gifted students in a recent NEA Today article, Are Too Many Kids Labeled Gifted? (January, 1998). In the same
