It's not often that I run across an article that discusses gifted children and gifted programming in a positive way. Ann Work, in her article Rising Above, however, does just that.

Work not only describes gifted children well -- including the fact that a gifted child might actually be the one who misbehaves in class -- she also discusses why gifted children need a different approach to education. She notes, for example, that gifted children's needs are so different from those of other children that they enter the realm of special needs children. In fact, Work points out that some states include gifted education in their special education department.

Of all the things Work said that I very much liked (and there were many such things), this is one of my favorites:
"A GT child should be able to be measured to show nine months of growth during a school year, just like a special ed child."

Imagine if our gifted children's academic growth were measured that way. That would truly be rising above the norm of gifted education today.