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At dinner one night I mentioned our upcoming magazine on education for the gifted and talented. "Oh, yeah," my 10-year-old stepson Daniel piped up. "Those are the kids who get to go on lots more field trips than anyone else." The whine in his voice and the pout on his face made it clear how he felt about "those kids" and their extra field trips. Daniel's reaction raises some important questions -- questions that researchers, educators, and policymakers have struggled with since Sputnik prompted the first national push to find and cultivate bright minds. Is it fair, for instance, to enrich the schooling of certain students? How were those particular kids singled out for special treatment? Do field trips really meet the needs of a math whiz or music prodigy? Historically, gifted children have been pulled back and forth in a philosophical tug-of-war that is uniquely American. As a nation, we admire inventors and innovators. At the same time, superior intellect makes us uncomfortable. Equality is the bedrock of our national identity, and we are suspicious of anything that looks like elitism. Support for gifted education, as a consequence, waxes and wanes like the cycles of the moon. Add to this philosophical dilemma the current push in educational reform toward keeping all kids in the same classroom. To avoid stigmatizing or isolating children, schools are moving away from pull-out programs that target special groups. Gifted students typically have been served—when they have been served—in separate enrichment programs. Folding gifted education into the fabric of the regular classroom often means gifted kids are forgotten, critics of the inclusion movement charge. Research has found that when their needs are neglected, gifted students can suffer from boredom and frustration. They may act out -- or drop out. Their talents may be lost to them and to the nation. In this issue, we take a look at what has been called the "quiet crisis" in gifted education. We present an overview of key issues in the field, with a sampling of research findings and recommendations on finding and serving bright students. We review the research on identifying gifted minority and disadvantaged children, often overlooked in programs for the gifted. We describe how Oregon's two largest districts are dealing with parents' complaints about programs for the gifted. And we offer a sampling of innovative approaches, along with student profiles, from around the Northwest. -- Lee Sherman
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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