Editorial: The Gifted: A Term with Surplus Meaning

Abstract

It has become fashionable for speakers and writers to refer to the forthcoming twenty-first century and speculate how things will be, or should be, at that time. It is always useful to reflect on the near future because it allows us to look up from our parochial and local concerns and think about our larger goals and directions. In the field of education for students there are many issues to think about in the next decade (see Gallagher, 1988; Maker, 1989; Feldhusen, 19851 but perhaps none so pressing as a reconsideration of the term gifted itself. Will that term serve us well in the twenty­ first century? It is the purpose of this paper to present a case for a possible shift in our terminology. We need to consider whether or not we have outgrown this term gifted which carries with it some clear surplus meanings to the public, and to other professionals, that are both inaccurate and misleading. The Meaning of the Term Gifted What does the term gifted in fact, imply? The American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language (1981) defines as En­ dowed with natural ability, talent, or other assets: agifted child. It clearly suggests that individuals have some form of innate ability or abilities that are a property of themselves. Since this is due to a presumed genetic transmission, then it is a set of characteristics that the individual will have with him/her for the rest of their lives, and which they can pass along to their offspring, in turn. This is clearly what Terman believed in his earlier longitudinal study as is evidenced by the title of his work, Genetic Studies of Genius (1925, 1947, 1959). His Stanford-Binet intelligence test was based upon similar assumptions.