Guest Editorial: The Media and the Gifted

Abstract

Comment by James J. Gallagher:

The re-emergence of excellence as a national educational goal has turned the attention of the media to the education of gifted students. The result of this new attention is that many of us have been, or will shortly be, contacted by representatives of the media and asked our opinion on gifted education or an entire range of complex issues. How do we cope with this desired, but somewhat anxiety-producing, situation?

Carlos Pedraza, Deputy Press Secretary to the Governor of Washington has, through the kind offices of Felice Kaufmann, agreed to provide some thoughts on how to interact with the media. We felt that this message was so timely and so on-target that we have made this into a guest editorial; one which we hope our readers will xerox and post by their telephones or up on their walls. Paying attention to any or all of this message could prevent many of the disappointments and surprises that can come from our adventures with the media.