Life is more than a series of back-to-back appointments. This summer, a previous high school student of mine from my old AP English class, was helping me get some work done in my yard. At $10/hour, he considered it a great way to earn last minute money for his upcoming freshman year in college and, frankly, I considered him worth the cost as well. Read More >

After failed education policies for decades, scientists, economists and educators looking at roles optimism, perseverance and grit play. In the late 1960s, Stanford University psychologist Walter Mischel sat preschoolers at desks with a marshmallow, a bell and a bargain: Eat the marshmallow any time you want, but if you wait 15 minutes, you'll get two marshmallows. Read More >

In preparing students for the world outside school, what skills are important to learn? This goes to the heart of the research addressed in the Deeper Learning Report released by the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science in Washington. Read More >

The Huffington Post
"Intelligence is a measure of one’s ability to learn. Everyone, by definition, possesses a level of intelligence. That said, each of us learns in different ways and at different rates." Read More >

New York Times
"Phrases like 'tiger mom' and 'helicopter parent' have made their way into everyday language. But does overparenting hurt, or help? While parents who are clearly and embarrassingly inappropriate come in for ridicule, many of us find ourselves drawn to the idea that with just a bit more parental elbow grease, we might turn out children with great talents and assured futures." Read More >

Brain Pickings
"Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children comes the following exchange between Einstein and a bright, witty South African girl named Tyfanny, who reminded Einstein of his own granddaughter...” Read More >

By Marilyn Price-Mitchell, Ph.D.

Do you have a smart child? Then you probably know that smart kids face many challenges - that raising intelligent children is not as easy as it may look from the outside.

We often think that smart kids have unlimited potential to achieve their dreams. But sometimes our definition of potential is limited by a narrow vision - a notion that success can be measured by impressive accomplishments like school grades or test scores. Read More >

Research with talented girls and women has revealed a number of personality factors, personal priorities, and social emotional issues that have consistently emerged as contributing reasons that many either cannot or do not realize their potential. Not all gifted females experience the same issues, but trends have been found in research about talented women that identify a combination of the following contributing reasons: dilemmas about abilities and talents, personal decisions about family, ambivalence of parents and teachers toward developing high levels of potential, and decisions about duty and caring (putting the needs of others first) as opposed to nurturing personal, religious, and social issues. Read More >

Maureen Healy, Psychology Today Is your child highly sensitive? Does your child want all the tags pulled out from her shirts? Or enjoy quiet play more than big and noisy groups? Does she seem to read your mind? Or ask lots of questions? Is she incredibly perceptive noticing all these minor details of life? Read More >

This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Barbara Clark, who offers strategies to use with gifted children to help them accept themselves as they are, to provide a place where they feel they can be themselves, and to try to help their educators to understand them as well. Read More >

Though not often recognized as "special needs" students, gifted children require just as much attention and educational resources to thrive in school as do other students whose physical, behavioral, emotional or learning needs require special accommodations. So says a Florida State University professor who has studied gifted students for years. Read More >