Secondary Gifted Education Should Be Primary

Reviews the book, The handbook of secondary gifted education edited by Felicia A. Dixon and Sydney M. Moon (see record 2005-15512-000). The imprimatur at the top of the front cover states that this excellent book is "a service publication of the National Association for Gifted Children." The National Association for Gifted Children is the major national professional group in the field of gifted education. We agree that The handbook of secondary gifted education merits this designation in that it provides a service to educators in the field that has not been hitherto available. In the introduction the authors state clearly the two goals of the handbook: (a) to focus on secondary gifted education, and (b) to give direction to the teachers of gifted students in secondary education. In our opinion, the book has succeeded, for the most part, in meeting these goals. The major focus of theory and practice as presented in the literature has been in educating the gifted on the primary and elementary school levels. As we have suggested by the title of this review, secondary education (middle school and high school) has been treated as secondary in importance and interest. It is, therefore, important that the present volume is devoted entirely to the secondary school years. The 25 chapters in this large (688 pages) edited handbook take a giant step forward in reaching teachers, counselors, and administrators in gifted education who provide services to secondary school gifted students. The two editors, experts in the field, contributed a number of chapters to the handbook and recruited contributing authors who maintained high standards of medium and message communication. Readers who are unfamiliar with the field of curriculum and instruction for gifted learners will come away with knowledge and appreciation of the importance of these endeavors in secondary education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)