FEATURES
Meredith Greene leads off with her article, “Reclaiming Teaching as a Helping Profession.” When she went to graduate school for a counseling degree, she lamented the fact that she had not had this training earlier for use during her teaching years, since teachers in fact serve as counselors to their students in so many ways. She alerts teachers to seven “rules” that will help them provide the counseling connections their students may need. Elizabeth Meckstroth follows with an article primarily directed toward parents, but including valuable insights for educators as well. Noting that the greater a child’s intelligence, the more difficult it is for him or her to find social peers, Meckstroth first explains the underlying causes that make gifted children require special counseling considerations. Next she turns to specific ways in which parents and educators can play pivotal roles in “Nurturing Social Relationships” for gifted children.
While teaching gifted middle school students, Thomas Hébert discovered that gifted boys do not respond in the same way as gifted girls in affective areas of learning. He has developed two key strategies for encouraging gifted boys to explore and cope with feelings and personal concerns:
Fiction author Stephanie Tolan makes her living telling stories, and points out that we are all creating stories throughout our daily experiences. We give meaning to our experiences and therefore we can change our stories if we choose. In her article, “Change Your Story, Change Your Life,” she illustrates her point with many telling examples. Tom Greenspon is best known for his book, Freeing Our
Finally, we include a National Research Center reprint of Nicholas Colangelo’s article, “Counseling Gifted and Talented Students.” As one who has focused on the social and emotional needs of gifted learners for many decades, his words carry special weight. Many of our department contributors have honed in on this issue’s theme as well. Most relevant are the following: