Preparing students for a changing world has always meant more to me than helping them perform well in school. It means developing their knowledge, judgment, creativity, and capacity to solve meaningful problems.
I have long believed that the rich, challenging experiences traditionally associated with gifted education should be available to far more children. Gifted education should be concerned not only with identifying exceptional ability, but also with creating the conditions in which exceptional ability can develop.
Opportunity itself can change what becomes possible.
Developing Talent Through Experience
That conviction shaped my work as an educator and what I prioritized for my daughters: rich, rigorous experiences that challenged them to develop their ideas.
Through The Invention Convention, the Connecticut Science Fair, and Future Problem Solving Program International, they identified real problems and unmet needs, explored unconventional solutions, and considered practical constraints, including cost, time, and ethical implications.
These experiences demanded more than academic knowledge. They required independent thinking, persistence, creativity, and the willingness to reconsider an approach when it did not work.
One year, one of my daughters did not win at the local level after working her heart out on an invention. She was deeply disappointed. We talked it through, and she committed to spending the next year improving it and entering again.
She kept her word.
The following year, her invention won multiple awards and was displayed at the Connecticut Science Center. Another invention was featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and another led to the pursuit of a patent.
Those achievements opened doors, but the year between not winning and winning stays with me. She had to decide that the problem was still worth solving, reconsider her approach, and continue working without knowing how it would turn out.
That was the kind of learning I had hoped these experiences would provide.
Why This Matters in the Age of AI
Artificial intelligence brings new urgency to this longstanding educational commitment.
As increasingly sophisticated tools become available, students need the knowledge and independence to evaluate suggestions, challenge assumptions, recognize limitations, and determine whether a proposed solution actually addresses the problem.
They also need the intellectual discipline and persistence to continue working when an immediate answer is insufficient.
Preparing students to work effectively with AI means developing their capacity to direct the work, exercise judgment, and evaluate what technology produces.
Authentic problem solving, sustained inquiry, and meaningful intellectual challenge help develop these capabilities.
Expanding Educational Opportunity
We cannot know with certainty which capabilities children may develop or how far their interests may take them.
What we can do is provide rich experiences, strong instruction, appropriate challenge, and individualized support that allow their capabilities to emerge and grow.
This responsibility belongs to both schools and families, although access to opportunities is not equally available. Schools have a particularly important role in ensuring that a child's opportunities are not limited by circumstances beyond their control.
Gifted education offers an important lesson for education more broadly: identifying potential matters, but developing it matters just as much.
The experiences we provide children can expand what becomes possible for them.
Dr. Judy Benson Clarke
Education Strategist
PEOPLE | POTENTIAL | POSSIBILITIES
