The Washington Post published an article about the Gifted Programs in an area school system as the school board and community continue to debate the merits of the program.  There is much discussion over whether or not the "gifted" label is necessary, fair, and accurate across the country.  Gifted and Talented programs normally conduct a screening or testing process during the second grade year.  It includes various types of academic and subjective evaluations in addition to references from parents and teachers.  Typically, once a child is labeled "gifted" that remains in their permanent record. I have often questioned the evaluation process of the gifted program.  In my experience, children go through some pretty major changes in physical, emotional, and intellectual development between the ages of 7 and 18.  I have always thought it was unwise to restrict testing to second graders when, in fact some students are just late developers who may exceed the abilities of their "gifted" peers when given time.  I have taught numerous "gifted" students at the middle school level who were far from academically gifted even though they had been labeled as such in the second grade.  Could they have been labeled as gifted because they came from homes where the parents were well-enough educated to give them a head-start over their peers but once the race really began they fell to the back of the pack while others who were slow out of the blocks lapped them in the end?  Certainly.  Unfortunately, their aren't a lot of measures in place to retract the "gifted" label and stick it on someone else. I believe that students can be gifted in any academic, art, or trade area.  Again, unfortunately we only test students for the academics and visual arts (in second grade, there are some counties who will test students at a later age for the performing arts).  It is hard to prove your giftedness for a subject or discipline to which you have not been exposed.  I think that there are plenty of kids who are gifted in, for example, foreign languages.  However, most school systems don't begin instruction in this area until late middle school.  How then are these kids going to benefit from the "gifted" program? I don't think the whole thing needs to be trashed but the gifted program as a whole needs a serioud overhaul.  What do you think?