Children's thoughts about the future:: Comparing gifted & nongifted students after 20 years

Twenty years after the original study comparing gifted and regular students' thoughts and concerns about the future, this study reexamines those same issues in the same school community. In 1975, gifted students were significantly more pessimistic toward the future than regular students. When faced with future problems, the gifted students were significantly more solutions oriented than regular students. Today, the situation has changed. Both groups are increasingly mole negative toward the future, and the pessimism of gifted students has dramatically increased. More problematic for educators is that gifted students are less solutions oriented. Gifted students see a plethora of problems and few solutions.