An anecdote:<p>The gifted program at my school was genuinely fun and interesting. They spent the year on a theme, say astronomy, and explored that theme through a variety of projects. For example, they designed a game about space travel, they built a model of the solar system, etc.<p>I was not in it until the 6th grade, the last year before &quot;gifted&quot; meant &quot;do more homework&quot; in my school system. I got in because the previous year I built a fairly impressive lego castle for my entry project and maybe they thought that because they were doing architecture as the theme that I would do well. I really did enjoy it and looked forward to it every week.<p>But I was not, and am not, an exceptionally hard worker or particularly motivated to excel. I probably have an above average memory and was thus able to do well in school despite my laziness (I graduated high school with a 3.3 GPA). Even if I was &quot;gifted&quot;, you wouldn&#x27;t know it from my work. But given the opportunity to engage in something, I took that chance and looked forward to it.<p>I&#x27;m not sure that this addresses the children in the article, but I feel it&#x27;s sort of a pity that the weekly &quot;explore your interests&quot; classes are no longer part of the gifted program in my child&#x27;s school district. Not because she&#x27;s necessarily gifted, but because I think she&#x27;d find it fun.