Sowing the Seeds of Gifted Children in the Garden City

Plan to attend the 2009 MT AGATE Conference in Missoula, Montana. 
April 23-25, 2009 at the Holiday Inn Parkside
Keynote Presenters:  Carol Ann Tomlinson, Jann Leppien, Karen Isaacson, and Tamara Fisher

Download a Registration Form

Download an Application to Present

“Expecting all children the same age to learn from the same materials is like expecting all children the same age to wear the same size clothing.”~ Madeline Hunter ~ “Every child deserves an equal opportunity to struggle.”~ Mary Slade ~ “It would be a loss for all kids if we made schools one track and all kids did the same things at the same time.”~ J. O’Neill ~ “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar!”~ Helen Keller ~ “To learn a particular concept, some children need days, some ten minutes. But the typical lockstep schedule and curriculum ignores this fundamental fact.”~ Marilyn Hughes ~ “You can never hold a person down without staying down with him.”~ Booker T. Washington ~ “Excellence in education is when we do everything that we can to make sure they become everything that they can.”~ Carol Tomlinson ~ “The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to treat all students as if they were variants of the same individual and thus to feel justified in teaching them all the same subjects the same way.”~ Howard Gardner ~ “There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.”~ Justice Felix Frankfurter ~ “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round heads in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”~Apple Computer Advertisement~ “When once the child has learned that 4 and 2 are 6, a thousand repetitions will give him no new information, and it is a waste of time to keep him in that manner.”~ J.M. Greenwood, 1888 ~ “Give me rigor or give me mortis!” ~ Michael Clay Thompson ~ “If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.”~ F. Wikzek ~ “Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”~ Benjamin Franklin ~ “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.”~ Leonardo da Vinci ~ “The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.”~ John Stuart Mill ~ “What happens to the rat that stops running the maze? The doctors think it's dumb when it's just disappointed.”~ Mark Eitzel ~ “Wisdom begins with wonder.”~ Socrates ~ “States and Provinces and curricula around the world track students by age. This practice is so common that we do not think of it as tracking. With few exceptions, a six year old must go into first grade even if that six year old is not ready or was ready for the grade one year earlier.”~ Zalman Usiskin ~ “As a society we must be able to admire ability, to support ability, to celebrate ability and to nurture ability. It must be as socially acceptable to support genius that is intellectual as it is to support genius that is athletic.”~ Michael Clay Thompson ~ “Closing the achievement gap by pushing down the top is like fostering fitness by outlawing marathons.”~Helen Schinske ~ “Keeping a child who can do sixth-grade work in a second-grade classroom is not saving that student's childhood but is instead robbing that child of the desire to learn.”~Ellen Winner ~ “My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.”~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ~ “No paradox is more striking than the inconsistency between research findings on acceleration and the failure of our society to reduce the time spent by superior students in formal education.”~ M. J. Gold, 1965 ~ Dad/Mr. Incredible: “It's psychotic. They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional...” Mom: “This is not about you, Bob. This is about Dash.” Dad: “You want to do something for Dash? Then let him actually compete. ... Because he'd be great!”~The Incredibles ~
Updated: October 2008
Please report any needed corrections to
Darla Williams
williams5739@msn.com