The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up: What They Tell Us
The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up is a detailed follow-up to Dr. Deborah Ruf’s previous book, 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options. In this book, Dr. Ruf explores how
background experiences and opportunities shape the lives of a specific group of gifted children—the ones from her previous
book as they reach adulthood.
The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up is for parents and educators of gifted children, psychologists and therapists who work with the families of gifted children, educational program coordinators and designers, and policymakers from local, state, and national levels. It’s also relevant for adults who know or suspect they are gifted themselves. Through the stories of these 78 individuals, Dr. Ruf provides a unique perspective on the complex issues that face gifted children and the impact of their background experiences and opportunities on their adult lives.
Deborah L. Ruf, Ph.D
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… and when statewide politicians, not educators, make the call I grew up in Ohio and still have many friends and relatives living there. One of my friends sent this plea for help from her daughter. Here is what she wrote to her own family and friends. “Family and friends,
I declared in second grade that I wanted to be a teacher and then a principal. That was in 1956-57. This is the picture of my 2nd grade class. Mrs. Tiberio was my teacher and I loved her! I’m farthest left in the first row. Everyone thought that was fine.
The people giving the descriptions are the mother or father of a gifted child who volunteered to work with me as I wrote about their experiences. These are all pseudonyms from my longitudinal study work. And no, things never seem to change in schools for very long and with great
Giftedness Across a Lifetime – How schools, access, and opportunity shape gifted people of every age
It matters that people be aware of typical education policy. And yet, we all go to school for at least a little while, and we hope and trust that the schools know what they’re doing. When I write about gifted children and schools, I am writing about adult readers, as
Yes, that’s what I do. I’m an investigative author who looks into why people turn out the ways that they do. In the summer of 2023 I released a book about the gifted children and their families with whom I’d worked in the early 2000s. Those kids are now grown
