A Global Village Is a Small World

Gifted students often show interest in complex social and environmental issues and a heightened sensitivity to global problems, and this capacity for moral responsibility and leadership of this interconnected world should be developed to its full potential. This development, however, should also find ways to alleviate the concerns and sense of helplessness that scholars have identified in these gifted students. The Future Problem Solving Program, established by E. Paul Torrance in 1974, has provided a means of building on gifted students' interests in the future world, their willingness to explore its problems in a structured and rigorous way, and their capacity to take responsibility for developing strategies and action plans that recognize global interdependence in the world they will lead.