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…

Many children fall in love with science at an early age. There is just something about exploring critters, crud, gears, pulleys, and other "stuff" that has fascinated generations of young students. Unfortunately, in many schools across the nation, science in the elementary classroom is relegated to the back burner as other curricular areas have…

Parents who homeschool gifted children often find the daily practice of home education very different from what they had imagined. Gifted children are complex in both personality and learning styles. Parents who say that homeschooling works well for their gifted children have learned from others or discovered on their own several secrets that make…

While resources for the gifted are not abundant, many schools do offer classes, programs, services, and/or clubs that broaden student learning beyond the curriculum. What can educators do to expand the horizons of gifted children--to open their minds to new worlds of knowledge and understanding? Programs for gifted students, particularly those…

Most educators who work with gifted students acknowledge the importance of creativity and have found various ways to include it as part of the gifted education curriculum. In many cases, however, developing creativity is still viewed as something separate from academic learning. Students with undemonstrated creative potential often are excluded…

Even though creativity is often included as one criterion for identification of gifted students, its development is not standard practice in many schools. What can teachers do to address creativity in the classroom? How can a teacher add one more thing to an already overcrowded curriculum? Rather than adding, creativity should be embedded into the…

In the 1970s, Jose Antonio Abreu started the Venezuelan program that puts instruments into the hands of poor children and transforms their lives with free music education. Abreu, a musician and economist, sees in the arts not just a discipline and skill but a path to true selfhood. This is not the sort of talk one often finds in education.…

When the term "green" is used to describe a product or way of life, it means "environmentally friendly." Followers of the green movement believe that by reducing their own usage of resources, they can reduce their negative impact on the environment and influence culture to the same ends. The green movement has spread from individuals to companies…

Children who are intellectually gifted are often emotionally mature for their ages. For a variety of reasons--including an unrewarding curriculum, preference for others of the same intellectual ability, or a feeling of social rejection--this maturity is sometimes masked at school. This can lead to what the author calls a "forced-choice" dilemma.…

Here's a statement that might seem the epitome of paradox: Underachievement has little to do with curriculum. Sure, curriculum is the stuff of school, the glue that bonds together one grade level to the next, but when it comes to the so-called underachiever's unwillingness to complete schoolwork and assignments, there is something far greater at…

Why do so many gifted youngsters stop working hard as soon as they encounter real challenge? These children are happy to spend time at tasks where they knew they will do well but balk at situations for which success may not be guaranteed. In early grades, a gifted child is often praised for his/her innate abilities. Many adults believe that it is…

Cutler was their first child, so how could they know just how different he really was? As parents, they had heard others say that everyone thinks their own children are gifted. Gifted? That really wasn't a label they had even considered. Their son looked at things differently than others his age. He had intense passions and little quirky…

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…

In some classrooms, gifted students are not exposed to the large and complex body of information and knowledge available today; instead, they are limited to what is deemed appropriate for the majority of their classmates. As a result, capable bright students may not develop the critical thinking skills necessary to analyze, synthesize, and…

Parents and teachers occasionally express concern that their children are too focused on the discovery of mathematics. The author remembers clearly one upset father who told him, "Just teach my daughter what she needs to know. Don't worry if she understands why it works. She just needs to know how to get the right answer." The author agrees with…