On Monday, I wrote about some new myths about gifted education. That got me thinking about the old myths. There are quite a few of them, so we sure didn't need any new ones!  You can find numerous lists of such myths.  Here are a few of them:

• Some Myths About Gifted Children
• Nine Myths About the Gifted
• Common Myths About Gifted Students

I'm sure you've heard some of them, like "all children are gifted," "gifted kids will do fine on their own, so they don't need help," and "gifted kids always stand out in a class."  I'm pretty sure I heard every one of the myths when my son was in school.  Have you encountered any of these myths? 

According to an article in Science Daily, not only have the myths about gifted education not been dispelled, but we now have even more.  Nineteen of them.  This is disheartening to say the least, but I guess I'm not surprised.  Here are some of the the myths that the article mentioned:

• Creativity is too difficult to measure
• High ability students don't face problems and challenges
• It's "fair" to teach all children the same way

These and the other nineteen myths are are the focus of a special edition of Gifted Child Quarterly. Don't worry if you don't have access to this journal.  If you hurry, you can read all the articles in this edition of the journal online.  Sage Publications, the publisher of this journal is making this edition available for free, but only for a limited time.

The activities of our congress for the last year has caused people to question how closely it is adhering to the powers given to it by the Constitution.  It's not that people have never questioned the constitutionality of the laws congress passes or programs those laws create.  Questions of constitutionality have been raised for decades...and decades.

But currently, there seems to be a growing interest in just what our Constitution says and how it works. It occurred to me that our kids, who love to learn, might be interested in learning more about the Constitution.  If you think your kids might be interested in learning more about the Constitution, you might want to visit the USConstitution.net Web site.

That site is a simple site, but it is packed with information.  Not only does it have the text of the Constitution itself, it also has sketches of the framers of the constitution, the text of the Declaration of Independence, and much more.

Sound too dull for the kids?  The site has a separate section just for kids.  The first page on the kids' site looks a little complex, but it's for older kids, those in grades 4 through 8.  There are other pages for younger kids as well.  All the pages contain the same information, but presented in language that the different age groups can understand.

• Constitution for kids k-3
• Constitution for kids 4-7
• Constitution for kids 8-12

Explore these pages with your kids; you could even make it a family activity!

Over the weekend I attended the virtual conference of the National Association for Gifted Children. It was an excellent experience and I'm looking forward to participating again next year. The first speaker of the day was Howard Gardner, who talked about his theory of multiple intelligences. I also got to hear a number of other presentations, including one on advocacy.

The upside of attending a virtual conference was that it allowed me to participate in the conference without having to spend time and money traveling back and forth to St. Louis. I could listen and watch the presenter's slides just like everyone else at the conference. And I also have access to tapes of the presentations. If you've ever been to a conference, you know what a great deal that is.

Were there any downsides? Yes, unfortunately, there were. As convenient as it was to sit at my desk at home and participate in the convention, it doesn't have the same level of the live conference. I also didn't have the opportunities to mix and mingle with people and talk about things I'd heard at the various sessions.

Still, I would definitely do it again. However, next time, I think I'd work on getting a group together -- parents, teachers, anyone interested in gifted kids and gifted education.