Are Gifted Children “Second Class Citizens” in America’s Public Schools? By Charlotte A. Akin, M.Ed. The question is real. Are gifted children treated differently in our schools than other children? Schools focus on special education children. Serious amounts of...
read moreGifted Advocacy at the School District Level
Advocacy seems to be happening year-round. We had our Washington State Gifted Education Day at the State Capitol in January. I was invited to NAGC’s Advocacy Conference in the other Washington in March - my introduction to advocacy at the national level. In June I...
read moreThe Challenge of Equity for Gifted Children
This past week I finished meeting with four state legislators to talk about the barriers to equitable identification and services for gifted children. It has been well documented that school districts miss identification of children in minority and poverty...
read moreDialing Down Anxiety
A pediatrician first gave me a method for dialing down anxiety: Minimize the situation. He said if I could help my girl make it smaller or simpler, she would be better able to handle it. I wasn’t to dismiss her anxiety. Rather, it was to help her see her...
read moreDear Phillip
Dear Phillip June 2018 Phillip Meng, a high school rising senior and winner of the prestigious Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation Scholarship, is one of only four in the nation. The scholarship comes with a full ride for four years to the college of his choice. ...
read moreNegotiations: Let’s Make a Deal
Negotiations: Let’s Make a Deal It wasn’t until I had a class of twenty-four gifted children in front of me to live with - for a whole school year - that I realized that “negotiating” was so much a part of a LOT of gifted children. I’d been a teacher in gen-ed...
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