This account of teaching regular and gifted students is based on a university education professor's return to the classroom. Discussion covers: the value of teaching without textbooks, compacting the curriculum to allow students to pursue their talents, and combining affective and cognitive content within the curriculum to promote student growth.…

A variety of beliefs and practices central to middle schools may cause special difficulties for gifted learners. Such practices often focus on potentially competing goals of student competencies versus student excellence and include such practices as heterogeneous grouping, cooperative learning, and an absence of clearly defined middle school…