“A lot of people view gifted education as being elitist,” she said. “We are constantly teaching kids the difference between equity and equality because it can sound elitist. But we still have to recognize the difference,” Verploegh-Calhoun explained. “Students may not be understood by their peers, but they still need to live in this world.”
Unfortunately, even some school administrators see gifted education as “elitist”. As parents, we need to advocate for our children and make school officials understand that a strong gifted education program benefits the entire school, not just the ‘elite smart kids’.
On another note, we need to do a better job of protecting services for gifted education:
According to the U.S. Department of Education (2000), 2.96 million or close to 6 percent of the school-aged population are gifted children. Since 1999, New Mexico is one of five states that recognizes gifted kids and protects them by law.
Only five states protect gifted kids by law?! That’s a shame, and we need to do more for our gifted kids– not just parents, but state legislators, school boards, and administrators as well. 
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