I completely enjoyed this article. I was a miss labeled kid myself. My brother's intelligence was recognized early on because he is a writer and learned best in the more traditional manner. I was labeled at risk early in my career, (special ed resource kid for most elementary years.) Lucky for me a six grade teacher recognized that I learned differently. He took the time to adjust the way he taught so that year I went from being labeled at a 3 grade reader, to talented and tested at a highschool reading level. {Talk about a person being bored with the same old reading book, year after year.)

I never "got" the label gifted in highschool, but I was ussually the only one in my class who got Shakespeare, G.K. Chesterton, Twain, C.S. Lewis, and others. But in college my professors recognized my intelligence. Because of my difficulty in spelling, auditory processing and speaking unfamiliar words outloud, it takes longer for me to complete my studies. Much to the surprise of anyone who taught me as a child, I am an honor graduate theology student, whose writing and understanding of theology (reading lexile +1900 level) is beyond the average person. I am a teacher and by taking very high level theological concepts and truths I can teach and communicate to others from age 3 to 99 at their level the truths of my faith. But of course I give God credit for the intelligence that I have which is a sign of deep intelligence too!

What a wonderful group of contributors for this article. Indeed I have admired these brilliant minds for some time. Even though they work in highly specialized fields, their responses (and work) demonstrate a broad background in the arts and sciences. Cross functional teaching and learning go hand-in-hand with open source tools. Implemented correctly, they hold the potential to unlock the doors for the next generation of great thinkers so they may positively impact human civilization.

I think the underlying theme of this article is the "wondrous support" these individuals received, either from external (teachers, parents, colleagues, and libraries) or internal (innate curiosity and pleasure). The question becomes, how can we ensure all children have access to these and the ability to develop them?

Yes! It is also important to note that intelligence is not finite!

I especially like the way Jane Goodall almost dismisses her formal education as being the driving force of her intellectual development. She cites her homelife - books, time out in nature and her dog, as the formative influences in her youth. I always bristle when I hear people talk about schools and teachers as being the number one factor in a child's cognitive development. The school as an institution is really an extention and reflection of the community from which it stems. The commonality I see in all of the interviews is the intrinsic motivation to work hard. At some point, American culture will recognize that education is not something done to students. It is something students must do; it takes hard work. I think it is less important that a teacher recognizes a students learning style and adjust their pedagogy to match. A teacher needs to help the student recognize their own learning style so the student can develop strategies to apply their strengths to novel learning situations, i.e. life. In short, use their strengths as the answer to the problem rather than a reason to have a teacher make a different lesson plan for each individual student so they fell good about themselves. The world rarely adapts to the individual. By expecting schools to adapt to students, I don't think we are fully preparing them for the realities of life beyond school. Check out ted.com for presentations by some of these folks.

Hmmm, two of them went to schools based on Dewey's philosophies...

As a lifelong teacher and learner, the importance of this article, for me, is that it should be used to inform educational policy makers, urging them to recognize the importance of independent choice as fuel for students' learning. As a bright elementary school student, I was quickly bored by the standard texts and spent my library time reading mythology, the lives of composers, etc. (Not your standard "Ted and Sally" reading.) I watched the same pattern develop in my son, who declared school reading pointless, yet read voraciously on biology topics that opened him to a career in science.

In this era of standardized testing and one-solution education, our teachers have lost the time and opportunity to foster creativity, being forced to prepare students for rote learning and test-taking.

Teachers, and parents as well, must use all of our influence to convince administrators of the importance of allowing students the time and ability to follow creative interests.

The "wondrous support" comment is the basic schematic element that played the key role in developing the types of intelligences that are displayed. Given the right stimulants everyone can begin to extract their specialty of intelligence. The problem is that most children and/or adults are not exposed to a large part of the world. I don't simply mean geographical context but more importantly significant experiencal events that allow you to develop and identify your strengths. The way most children in the US are taught to learn leaves no room for creativity, because rather its structure is based on passive learning; the format its guided by is will to extract the highest grade on a given exam. Education should be constructive and foster students’ curiosity and enthusiasm to learn because once learning begins to get fun that when students take it to a more personal level.

The "wondrous support" comment is the basic schematic element that played the key role in developing the types of intelligences that are displayed. Given the right stimulants everyone can begin to extract their specialty of intelligence. The problem is that most children and/or adults are not exposed to a large part of the world. I don't simply mean geographical context but more importantly significant experiencal events that allow you to develop and identify your strengths. The way most children in the US are taught to learn leaves no room for creativity, because rather its structure is based on passive learning; the format its guided by is will to extract the highest grade on a given exam. Education should be constructive and foster students’ curiosity and enthusiasm to learn because once learning begins to get fun that when students take it to a more personal level.

Although these bio-narratives are compelling and inspiring, please use extreme caution when drawing any conclusions about how to reinvent schooling based on these case studies.

The teaching-learning process is a very complicated and challenging enterprise. We want all students to flourish. The intellectual-cognitive realm (e.g., scientific thinking, writing, mathematics) is only one important dimension to human flourishing. Schools must educate for all forms of human excellence, including such areas as nourishing virtuous living, spirituality, leadership, visual arts, musical expression, mechanical and technical skills, and so on. Schools are charged with finding ways to enhance all students' aspirations and "intelligences", not just the gifted intellects.