Unless we're challenged on it, we believe gifts are simply blessings. We hope gifted kids have an easy time at school. Yet it turns out the only people who think that are the ones who haven't had to wonder whether a particular child had unusual gifts or tried to find appropriate resources.

Where the child lives can make a difference. The Davidson Institute for Talent Development surveyed the nation on state policies, and came up with some surprises. States with mandated and fully funded programs are Alaska, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Georgia, and Mississippi. At the low end (not mandated and no funding available) are New York, most of the New England states, and the District of Columbia, South Dakota, and Illinois. The rest are somewhere in between. California has no mandate to serve this population. Some funding is available, but school districts would need to do a lot of extra work to get a share of it. For most of them, it's not the squeaky wheel.

Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) in San Francisco varies from school to school. What's offered is identification of students who test well during elementary school, honors classes in some middle schools, and Advanced Placement classes in high school. It probably does identify some gifted students. Go to the web site for more information.

For families with a Special Education child who is gifted, there's a bit more information. Go to the SF Unified School District Special Education Services page and select Information for Parents from the sidebar on the right. Near the bottom of the page, there's a link for Gifted Students with Special Needs. On the page that brings up, the one item that's well worth your time is Gifted and Learning Disabled Information. The page that comes up begins with an article called "Characteristics of Gifted and Learning Disabled Students." The page also has useful links on Learning Styles, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, Auditory and Visual Processing, and other common issues. Taking time to absorb the information here can definitely help with thinking things through.

Now you may be ready for the Time Magazine article "Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students". It's on the website of The Association for the Gifted (TAG) which is a division of the Council of Exceptional Children (CEC). It was reprinted in major newspapers nationwide, and probably has forced things to get a bit better in many places.

Apparently the very best place to be is in the state of Iowa. Like a few other states, public schools are mandated to serve gifted children and the programs are fully funded. Also, at the University of Iowa, there's the Belin Family Research Library. It focuses on education of the gifted, is independent of the University of Iowa library system, and can be used by anybody. The catalog can be accessed online. Librarians will take questions via email: library [at] belinblank [dot] org

Let's go back again to the Davidson Institute. Seclect HOME. Then, on the right, select Getting Started for Parents. There are three sections and you want only the first two. Is my child gifted? asks you whether the child demonstrates a long list of characteristics. It's useful.

The second, Should I have my child tested to determine his/her IQ? has a link for more information, and you want that whether or not you're considering testing. The page it brings up offers you, in the sidebar on the left, a publication of the College of William and Mary Center for Gifted Education. It's called "The on-going dilemma of effective identification practices in gifted education". This will be of some comfort to parents blessed with a gifted child: it shows that professionals who spend their full-time efforts on these issues are often stymied. Testing has advantages and disadvantages, yet no one has so far found a substitute for it. What we CAN do is share the resources that help us muddle through.