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Back in the early 1990s, three Manitoba School districts launched the "Lost Prizes" project to reclaim talented, at-risk high-school dropouts. Despite their unique gifts, these relationship-resistant youth were disenchanted, disillusioned, and disconnected. Many had major substance abuse problems and were engaged in serious criminal activity. At the time, in an attempt to focus our efforts and delineate strategies that might be effective with this group, our team of educators developed the Amphitheater Model for Talent Development. It has undergone revision over the years, but its emphasis has always been on equity, flexibility, and guiding practical interventions to identify and nurture the talents of all students, including those who have been hitherto marginalized. In this article, we discuss briefly the original "Lost Prizes" initiative (where Creative Problem Solving and mentoring were used in combination to turn around young lives), summarize more recent follow-up and current programs, and describe the Amphitheater Model itself.

Throughout his focus article, Robert Sternberg discusses the theoretical underpinnings and rationale behind his emerging Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership (ACCEL) model. In the process, he raises several critically important issues, including the misuse of IQ testing as the major method for identifying gifted students, the need to address real-life problems by focusing on creativity and concerned citizenship, and the potential for principled, ethical leadership to make a real difference in the world now and in the future. The intent of this response article is to pick up on these major themes, extend the conversation, emphasize the necessity for expanding enrichment programming to include marginalized young people for whom the playing field is not level, and help set the stage for wider implementation of the ACCEL framework to enhance identification, instruction, and learning in gifted education.

This article presents the author's comments on Hisham B. Ghassib's "Where Does Creativity Fit into a Productivist Industrial Model of Knowledge Production?" Ghassib's article focuses on the transformation of science from pre-modern times to the present. Ghassib (2010) notes that, unlike in an earlier era when the economy depended on static knowledge reflected in basic trades and apprenticeships, today's reality has positioned science as a knowledge industry that must "persist and reproduce itself" if it and modern societal structures hope to survive. In conceptualizing "the knowledge enterprise" as an industry, Ghassib (2010) identifies and defines its components. Much of what he says connects quite nicely with elements of the more than five-decade-old tradition of the theory and practice of Creative Problem Solving. The author discusses Ghassib's (2010) six components: (1) the productive sites; (2) the producers; (3) raw material; (4) means of knowledge production; (5) methods of production; and (6) peculiarity of the product.

This article describes several initiatives in which Creative Problem Solving, in combination with career exploration and mentoring, has been used successfully to identify and develop the talents of "at-risk" populations. During the past decade, the Lost Prizes project helped turn around the lives of talented but troubled high-school dropouts, Northern Lights encouraged productivity in disenfranchised Aboriginal teens, and Second Chance reduced recidivism among Native Canadian inmates. Currently, various mentoring programs are providing support to vulnerable inner-city young people at risk for alienation, school failure, and gang involvement.

One of the many legacies left to us through ancient Greek literature is the concept of mentoring. The ideal mentoring relationship involves three key components: (1) Continuing to carry out other duties while assuming the care-giving role; (2) Serving as a conduit for the wisdom of others; and (3) Developing a long-term connection. Mentoring can help at-risk youth develop their identities and decision-making skills. However, it may require gradual movement through the early trust-building stages (i.e., trust versus mistrust; autonomy versus doubt; initiative versus guilt; industry versus inferiority; identity versus identity confusion; intimacy versus isolation). At-risk youth often go through these stages in new environments, community-based programs, and mentoring relationships. Working on the issues and moving someone through this process takes time, patience, and understanding. This model program demonstrates the challenges and power of mentoring relationships between educators and students at risk. (Contains 1 note.)

A study compared the recidivism rate of two groups of Native Canadian inmates. The experimental group of offenders (n=31) received intensive pre-release support, including counseling, training in creative problem solving, career awareness sessions, and on-the-job experiences. Individuals in the experimental groups were much less likely to re-offend. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Reports on experiences of living with ADHD from parents' and young adult's perspectives. Describes the types and characteristics of ADHD. Presents suggestions on ways to live and cope with a hyperactive child. (Author/JDM)

Explains that although society views gifted students as not in need of special assistance, these students do experience difficulties, many of them become droputs, and require extra help. Offers 10 broad proposals, such as placing more emphasis on talent development, for reaching out to at-risk talented students. (MKA)

The article announces the 20th Anniversary of the ICIE, an international educational organization and network that promotes cross-cultural communication, global collaboration, and knowledge mobilization to improve education and address real-world issues.

This article describes several initiatives in which Creative Problem Solving, in combination with career exploration and mentoring, has been used successfully to identify and develop the talents of 'at-risk' populations. During the past decade, the Lost Prizes project helped turn around the lives of talented but troubled high-school dropouts, Northern Lights encouraged productivity in disenfranchised Aboriginal teens, and Second Chance reduced recidivism among Native Canadian inmates. Currently, various mentoring programs are providing support to vulnerable inner-city young people at risk for alienation, school failure, and gang involvement.

Describes evolution of the teacher center in Selkirk (Manitoba) from a "make and take" library of teacher aids to a human resource center providing special services of a reading specialist, psychologist, audiologist, speech therapist, and secretary-librarian who offer pragmatic educational solutions and programs to assist teachers in their classrooms. (NEC)

The article informs about the 18th e International Centre for Innovation in Education (ICIE) International Conference to be held in Helsinki, Finland to be held on July 4-8, 2022 with focus on School-Based Partnerships in Gifted Education. Topics include scores of educators to design and put in place a number of enrichment programs in schools worldwide; and University of Winnipeg (UW) offering a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Education (PBDE) for Maple Bear educators in Brazil.

The article presents the discussion on creativity showing together with a liberal dose of resilience and perseverance including corporate executives, professional coaches, and well-known organizations.

The study at hand was undertaken to assess and compare the respective abilities of Canadian and Mexican subjects to identify emotion in speech. Canadian and Mexican female teachers, speaking whatever words they wished in their own languages, attempted to simulate four emotional states (i.e., happiness, sadness, love, and anger). After the initial recording, these samples were passed through an electronic filter which removed the semantic content while leaving intact the tonal qualities of the speech. The filtered vocal expressions were played to Canadian and Mexican subjects 5, 9, 13, 17, 25, 45, and 65 years of age. From 5 through 25, there was a progressive increase with age in ability to identify the emotion expressed. Ability did level off, however, and eventually even decreased (such that the 65 year-olds performed less accurately than the other adult groups). Overall, the Mexican subjects were significantly more sensitive to emotion in speech than their Canadian counterparts. As well, both Canadian and Mexican subjects judged speech samples from Mexican speakers more accurately than those from Canadian speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recordings were made of Canadian and Mexican actresses reciting contradictory messages in their respective languages (i.e., English and Spanish). The speech samples were contradictory in that the tone of voice was incongruent with the words spoken. When these contradictory communications were played to Canadian and Mexican children aged 7, 9, and 11, it was found that there was a clear age effect. That is, the younger children in both cultures interpreted the contradictory messages more negatively than the older children. Further, a culture effect was noted, such that the Mexican children viewed the contradictory speech significantly more negatively than did their Canadian counter-parts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

White and Indian adult males, speaking whatever words came to mind in their native languages (English and Cree, respectively), attempted to express vocally the emotions of happiness, sadness, love, and anger. After these simulations of emotional state were recorded, the speech samples were rendered unintelligible by means of an electronic filter (which removed verbal meaning while leaving intact the tonal aspects of speech). The filtered vocal expressions from the white and Indian speakers were then played to other groups of white and Indian adult males (receivers). When both heard the samples from the white speakers, the white receivers were able to identify the emotional content of tone of voice more accurately than the Indian receivers. On the other hand, Indian receivers performed more accurately than whites when judging the samples from Indian speakers. The significant interaction suggested that language and culture are crucial factors in the transmission of emotion-even on the nonverbal vocal level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]