In Part 4, the focus was on extracurricular activities and their lack of use in gifted education today. While all students would benefit from the extension of knowledge to social problems, gifted students are those who are most likely to reach positions of influence and their ability to solve social problems should be at the center of their educational plans. These experiences could take various forms, from accompanying physicians or engineers, conducting research in any number of areas, reporting that research to the professional community, or assisting in the design of urban planning or alternative planning methods. Any experience that forces gifted children to incorporate learned knowledge and integrate this knowledge into their moral makeup solves the problem of whether the learned knowledge is truly understood and can be used effectively.

As the facts in Part 1-4 are examined, it is not difficult to find out why gifted education programs are not funded or are closed entirely. The education of gifted students actually requires more time and resources than the traditional student. If those resources and money were spent on the traditional school, many more students could increase their test scores and their political influence (test scores) would remain intact. Not only are resources an issue in teaching the gifted, but the administrator’s attitudes toward them are also altered by these same test results. The gifted are supposed to do well on their own, so they are left to their own devices to prepare for state exams.

Identifying the gifted student also raises issues in the housing of these students, how districts will pay for their education, and what types of special curriculum will be used to train these students. Since most districts house gifted students in a single facility rather than providing each school with an individual program, many students do not identify as gifted. This limits the resources spent trying to educate these students. Identifying the gifted also raises issues involving how far the district’s curriculum or instructional resources will go to ensure that the student is educated. Extended experiences are required to ensure that knowledge is processed and incorporated into the student’s base of understanding.

So what should go on the headstone of gifted education? Gifted education is not dead yet, but with over-reliance on the state to test resource allocation for its preparation, gifted education has one foot in the grave and a tombstone must be carved in anticipation of the end. In preparation, I suggest that the headstone be read as such:

Here lies gifted education
Shot in the back by state evidence
Cried by all, missed by no one