Au Contraire: Gifted in a Flash (Mob)

A "flash mob" is defined by Wikipedia as "a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse." Fueled by social media and Smartphones, flash mobs have been used, primarily, as entertaining diversions by addicted techies with (apparently) tons of time on their hands. It seems to the author that the field of gifted child education has been experiencing its own flash mob mentality for quite some time, for whenever a group of gifted gurus gets together--say, at a national gifted conference--a mob forms as to who can define the concept of giftedness so broadly that it becomes a term that "in"cludes more children than it "ex"cludes. In considering the definition of a flash mob, the author is struck especially by the phrase "performing an unusual and pointless act," for it seems to apply so well to the current emphasis among gifted child educators who seem to believe that the field will get more vibrant the bigger it gets. Gifted in a flash (mob)? Not such a great idea.