New education blog

Photo from Grindhopping.com

Right leaning columnist for USA Today and Reader's Digest (and occasional critic of Columbia Journalism Review) Laura Vanderkam has a new blog on gifted education, "Gifted Exchange." Go check it out.

I've long thought that most education public policy discussions and most public education money--at least at the primary and secondary levels--go towards making sure that those at the bottom and middle of the academic ladder can climb it. Helping those who need it most is of course a worthwhile goal.

But the great advances in society tend to be made by those at the top of the academic ladder. Are we doing enough to make sure they flourish and push society ahead? It's not an area I have any great knowledge in, but when I think about the number of articles I've read on special needs education versus gifted and talented education, or the title of the No Child Left Behind Act, it does get me wondering if we're giving the gifted their due. And if we are not, will society suffer?

Two places that are thinking about these issues are the Davidson Institute for Talent Development (with which Vanderkam has some connection) and the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development at the University of Iowa College of Education. (The Belins who established the center are quite an interesting family, but that is another story for another day.)