Reviewed by The New York Times

		In 1983, Jan Davidson's software company developed Math Blaster, a series of computer games that today's mathematics whizzes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard cut their algorithmic teeth on. When the Davidsons sold their company in 1996 for more than $1.3 billion, they set aside 94 percent of their share for the Davidson Institute and other educational philanthropies. The mission: to find and make flourish academically gifted children. Some have called the Davidsons modern Medicis, patrons to families whose children may become the next Newtons, Mozarts or da Vincis. The institute has served thousands of gifted students in varied outreach programs, devoting more than $2 million a year to subsidize children ''who stare at the classroom floor because they find the dust patterns more interesting than the subject matter they've already learned.'' Fifteen children age 7 and older receive annual miniversions of MacArthur grants to underwrite projects like the composition of symphonies or the synthesis of vaccines.  The Davidsons' book chronicles the frustrations and successes of these children and their parents. It indicts the obvious: that the brightest are shuffled away in deference to other political priorities, most glaringly remedial and bilingual classes, standardized testing and athletics.  But it is also a handbook for parents who want to be general contractors of their gifted child's education, whether in the system or out. With one in five high school dropouts testing in the gifted range, and only 2 cents of every 100 federal education dollars aimed at the gifted, the refrain of ''Genius Denied'' echoes through its pages: the gifted child is sometimes left behind. -John Budris Copyright © The New York Times. All rights reserved.

					Reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly

		The Davidsons, a husband-and-wife team, established a nonprofit organization to assist especially bright kids and their parents in their quest for educational fulfillment. They draw on their clients’ experiences in this manifesto for change. For gifted students, "doing well does not mean doing one’s best" they believe, and highly intelligent children are often as inclined to fail as to succeed. Of course, the terrible shape of education and public schooling in particular isn’t news, and approaches to learning for specialized groups like the gifted are often as jerry-built as those for the learning disabled. Like a gentle, scripted but persistent public service announcement, this book reminds readers that when it comes to education, legislators, lobbyists, administrators, teachers, parents and even gifted children themselves sometimes fall into lazy, conformist patterns of thinking and action, and that both the current situation and the forecast for the future are fairly discouraging. The Davidsons make a compelling case for re-approaching giftedness as a potential disability (to give more attention to gifted kids) and an even stronger argument for parents, teachers and citizens to consider the potential loss to American society in the costliest imaginable terms. Above all, they want readers, whatever their relationship to the gifted, to start thinking about the issue. This is an exhortatory book that doesn’t resort to finger pointing; it even includes “what you can do about this” suggestions aimed at everyone from policymakers and principals to parents. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

					Reviewed by Booklist

		The Davidsons, creators of educational software and founders of a nonprofit foundation that helps educate gifted children, offer an absorbing look at how our nation is neglecting children of exceptional intelligence. Egalitarian notions, sparse education funds, and a cultural trend toward anti-intellectualism have combined to put gifted children in a position where schools typically don’t meet their needs. The authors concede the difficulty of defining genius and offer guidelines used by various school districts and authorities that have the effect of lowering the bar and offering "enrichment" programs of limited duration that don’t begin to address the needs of really gifted children. But the core of this book is the stories of exceptionally bright or talented children forced to endure the routines of regular schools that, while teaching to the lowest common denominator, stifle their enormous potential. The final chapter offers advice to parents on how they can help their children and advocate on their behalf. -Vanessa Bush Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.

					Reviewed by Library Journal

		It's all about aha! moments, those special times when a concept, a theory, or whatever else a child has been struggling to understand finally makes sense. But many children are denied these aha! moments because they aren't being challenged in their education. The Davidsons, founders of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, an organization that provides assistance to gifted children and to schools, are concerned that highly intelligent children are not being offered the best education possible. Surprisingly, they claim, these children are the most likely to fall through the cracks in American classrooms. They're also the most likely to underachieve and to suffer the greatest gap between their potential and what is asked of them. Pointing out the need for curriculums that are not age defined-the need to get away from an educational philosophy demanding that children of the same age do the same thing at the same time-the authors ask the following: What new ideas are we squelching by not allowing these children to stretch their minds? Through their work with gifted students, the Davidsons have discovered teaching methods that nurture the intellect. They present these methods eloquently and suggest forceful ways to restructure schools to embrace rather than deny genius. Recommended for most public libraries.-Terry Christner, Hutchinson P.L., KS Copyright © 2004 Reed Business Information. All Rights Reserved.

					Reviewed by Education Week

		The authors, educational software developers and founders of a nonprofit foundation for gifted children, argue that most American schools, including those with gifted programs, neglect and underchallenge gifted students. Gifted children, they maintain, are "one of the most at-risk student groups" in the nation. They demonstrate, through stories of the children they work with, that giftedness knows no racial or socioeconomic barriers, but suggest that our cultural values of egalitarianism and anti-intellectualism may in fact affect gifted education. The book includes specific steps that students, parents, educators, and policymakers can take to help gifted students achieve. Copyright © 2004 Education Week.Copyright

					Reviewed by Zwire

		"Genius Denied: How to Stop Wasting our Brightest Young Minds" (Simon & Schuster, $24) by Jan and Bob Davidson deals with what the authors call a "devastating educational tragedy buried on the back pages" of our nation's newspapers. Thousands of highly intelligent children are being "warehoused in classrooms that can't or won't challenge them" charge the authors. Their purpose in "Genius Denied" is to show how many gifted children are shortchanged and what can be done to change this sorry situation. With an estimated 2 cents out of every $100 of federal funds devoted to gifted instruction, these programs are not considered a high priority by the national government. Often dissatisfied with a system that doesn't respond to their needs and bored by the slow pace of regular classroom settings, these students become disillusioned. The Davidsons report that one out of five high school dropouts test in the gifted range. To rectify this issue, the Davidsons provide advice that shows parents and teachers how to either change the system if it is not meeting the needs of gifted youngsters or to work around it, if need be. Providing material and classes that challenge these students is the goal, and this can be done in a number of ways. Classes of real substance, magnet schools, special summer programs and partnerships between colleges and schools are just some of the ways to create meaningful gifted programs. Parents need to become involved in seeing that their gifted children are provided with these programs or accelerated to the proper educational level within the system. In some cases, parents must network together to see that their concerns are taken seriously. They refer to this situation as "the quiet crisis in our educational system" but one that must be addressed if the potential of our youth is not to be squandered in the formative years. Jan and Bob Davidson hope "Genius Denied" creates a dialogue that will force public school districts and educators to do a better job of educating our brightest students. If the situation doesn't improve, those families with the financial resources will no doubt continue the flight to the private schools. - Bob Walch Copyright © 2004 Zwire. All rights reserved.

					American Journal of Psychiatry

		The title gets your attention, but the strength of this book goes considerably beyond the title. It is a highly readable, informative, and thoughtful presentation on one of education’s important but often "invisible" topics—the education of gifted students. The purpose of the book is to highlight the plight of gifted students, a group that is often forgotten in the politics of school priorities. Attention to gifted students has always been patchwork and usually minimal in the United States, although there have been times when the nation was concerned about its brightest academic students. For example, the years just following Sputnik demonstrated America’s concern with excellence in schools, particularly in math and science. As the Davidsons accurately point out, the current No Child Left Behind legislation focuses federal attention and educational resources on students with remedial needs. No Child Left Behind legislation makes no overtures to those students well above the academic mean, and the goal of this book is to correct that. The authors define "genius" as extraordinary intellectual ability. They do an informative job of providing definitions of giftedness and means for identifying gifted students. They make the particularly salient point that there is a national response to IQ measures: there is very little dispute over using IQs to identify students for special needs and remedial classrooms but extensive debate and accusations over the use of IQs to identify gifted students. The book is a strong compilation of stories of remarkable young people and their parents as well as stories of frustrations with schools. These stories give a "soul" to everything in the book, but the book is more strengthened by its attention to studies and research information. The sections are short but packed with substance. For example, the section titled Zooming Ahead is five pages long but makes an excellent case for acceleration. The section Achieving Excellence and Equity is eight pages in length, yet it makes a most thoughtful presentation on the complex and nuanced subject of "tension" between excellence and equity. All the sections are characterized by brevity and substance. Two acquaintances of mine who are not in the field of gifted education read the book and had almost identical comments: "I could not put it down." Genius Denied is a book that absolutely should be read. It is readable not just in terms of style but in terms of substance. This book makes a documented and vibrant argument for the importance of meeting the academic and social needs of gifted students. It has the markings of a book that years from now will be looked to as a "marker." What Jan and Bob Davidson have done is bring the issue of the education of gifted students to the table of America’s discussion on education. They have written that rare book which is appealing to educators and scholars in the field as well as to the general public. When (not if) schools cease to waste our brightest young minds, Genius Denied will be credited as a catalyst in that effort. - Nicholas Colangelo, Ph.D. University of Iowa Copyright © 2005 American Journal of Psychiatry Book Forum: Aspects of Development. All Rights Reserved.

					More Reviews

		The Sorry State of Gifted Education, 2e Newsletter, October 2004 No. 146:Genius Denied: Bright Students Fall Through the Cracks, Carolina Journal, June 3, 2004 (George Leef) Genius Denied Review, AARP Website, August 2004

					Genius Denied: How to Stop Wasting our Brightest Young Minds by Jan & Bob Davidson with Laura Vanderkam Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster ISBN: 0743254600