Educating the Gifted (Revised and Expanded Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Hyman Blumberg Symposia on Research in Early Childhood Education)

"The acceleration versus enrichment controversy has existed virtually for as long as there have been sizable schools. Early entrance and ‘‘double promotions’’ seemed more natural in the context of the one-room schoolhouse than they do today. The issue has led to a great deal of argument, most of it unsupported by firm empirical evidence. Seldom is it even recognized explicitly that there are about as many different ways to speed up the educational progress of an intellectually talented youth as there are ways to ‘“‘enrich”’ his or her educational experiences (e.g., see Stanley 1978 for a list of the former). It was the purpose of the 1977 American Educational Research Association symposium, on which this book is based, to explore the situation from many points of view and to see what studies thus far indicate. We were fortunate to assemble an outstanding panel and to provide its members in advance with some of the most relevant literature, including a rather thorough survey prepared by Stephen P. Daurio especially for this symposium. We hope that this volume will steady the keel a bit by counteracting unsupported statements that favor either point of view. This does not mean we are neutral, however. In our opinion, empirical evidence strongly supports the value of letting intellectually brilliant youths move ahead educationally at *their own* preferred rates, rather than being held to the lock step age-in-grade pace that characterizes most schools."