Success in the classroom and in life

Abstract

Strengths of the heart is a new and potentially useful paradigm for understanding how the whole gifted child can thrive and flourish. Until recently, those who have written about and have researched the gifted have focused much of their work on strengths of the head—understanding, identifying, and promoting intelligence and creativity. More recently, there has been a growing interest in looking “beyond the head,” to the heart and soul of the gifted child. Feelings, emotions, character strengths, and social competencies are now being researched among high-ability students. This article introduces the idea of strengths of the heart and the special issue.