The Editor's View

Welcome to Inaugural Issue of the Duke Gifted Letter

Volume 1 / Issue 1 / Fall 2000

Readers, welcome to the inaugural issue of the Duke Gifted Letter! We are extremely excited about the publication of a newsletter designed specifically for parents of gifted children and youth.

Duke TIP was established twenty years ago to identify academically gifted students and provide inno-vative programs to support the development of their educational potential.

One of TIP’s goals has been to provide parents of gifted children with timely, authoritative, and practical information. TIP recognizes the importance of well-informed parents in actualizing the optimal development of gifted youngsters. The Duke Gifted Letter was conceived with this goal in mind.

Our mission is to provide valuable information and wide-reaching resources for enriching the lives of families with gifted and talented children everywhere.

This premier issue of the Duke Gifted Letter reflects the purpose of providing a highly readable publication that consists of informative articles of great appeal to parents. The first feature article looks at Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences, and the second focuses on presidential candidates Bush and Gore’s views on gifted education. We have invited experts in the gifted field to offer, in our “Expert’s Forum,” their thoughts on Gardner’s theory.

“Magna Cum Laude” describes an exemplary educational program or curriculum. For this first issue, we invited Dr. Tyler C. Tingley, principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, to provide us with a profile on the academy’s use of the innovative Harkness Table.

Two columns are designed to provide parents with timely information on new materials and products: critical reviews of educational materials appear in “Product Tips,” and down-to-earth discussions of technology, the Internet, and related resources are covered in “Technology Matters.”

You will also find in the Duke Gifted Letter a column that focuses on the social and emotional needs of the gifted child, “The Emotional Edge.” In this issue we examine activities parents can engage in to bolster high-quality time spent with preschool-aged gifted children. Future topics will include such issues as dealing with perfectionism, knowing the warning signs of depression, and teaching leadership skills.

Wanting to highlight the parent’s perspective, we conceived the “Parent’s Platform” column to provide parents with an opportunity to share their personal stories, successes, and failures. To launch “Parent’s Forum,” we invited Ms. Dori Staehle to provide an article on how she supported her daughter’s extraordinary musical talent.

Finally, “Consultant’s Corner” invites experts to offer their opinions on questions submitted to the newsletter. We asked Dr. Maureen Niehart and Dr. Vicki Stocking to address a question frequently asked of us at TIP: What advice would you offer to a middle-school-aged student who isn’t challenged academically in school? We invite you to send in your questions on any issue or topic.

We hope that you find the Duke Gifted Letter everything that you expected and hoped for in a newsletter. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your suggestions or feedback. I want to be sure that we are providing you—our readership—with a valuable resource that informs, guides, and stimulates your thoughts on raising a gifted child.
—Steven I. Pfeiffer, PhD