The Nature of Giftedness and Talent

Any discussion of the nature of giftedness and talent will depend on how one defines those terms. Who is gifted? Who is talented? How are giftedness and talent manifested? Perhaps the widest used definition these days-&dquo;used&dquo; in the sense that a good deal of the literature alludes to it and a great many school systems assert that it is the definition which guides their planning-is the so-called U.S. Office of Education definition. This definition suggested by an advisory panel to the then-Commissioner of Education, Sidney Marland, Jr., and presented in the Marland Report is as follows: