Across classrooms and kitchen tables, adults still talk about “gifted” children as if brilliance were a fragile heirloom that must be protected at all costs. Science points in a different direction.

When schools or psychologists identify some kids as gifted, they’re implicitly identifying a whole lot more kids as not-gifted. This artificial distinction can do a lot of damage, both for those who ...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. “Gifted” can be somewhat of a loaded term in education because it implies that some kids are better than others. While it is true that kids can have ...