The gifted

James J. Gallagher states that gifted students fall into the following groups: (1) academically talented, which includes the 15 to 20 percent of the general school population with IQ's of 116+; (2) gifted, which includes the 2 to 4 percent of the general school population with IQ's of 132+; and (3) highly gifted, which includes 0.1 percent of the general population or about 1 child in 1,000 with an IQ of 148+.2 Numerous other definitions could be cited, but they generally have approximately the same meaning as Good's and Gallagher's definitions. Even though gifted can be defined, and the students who have the characteristics of being gifted can be identified, they have been and are still being neglected today. The neglect of them is common throughout the United States. The problem of adequately educating the gifted has been ever present. In colonial days individual differences were not recognized. Each man was believed to be as able as another, and this doctrine is strong even today. Sometimes the brighter students tutored the slower ones, or they were chosen to lead extracurricular activities. However, no special attention was given to them. Between 1870 and the 1900's St. Louis and New York experimented with allowing brighter pupils to finish work at a faster pace and graduate earlier. Also, there was

Mathematics education · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Psychology · School Choice and Performance