they were so reluctant to give up on him. As Miss A observed, "I could feel the impact of [Dibs'] personality. I could sense the overwhelming awareness of our limitations to understand in clear, concise, immutable terms the complexities of a personality" (Axline, 1964, p. 19).
Having to deal with difficult students has been one of the leading causes of teachers leaving the profession. Many of these teachers are otherwise dedicated, but when faced with the prospect of teaching their regular classrooms in addition to exceptional students, a significant number of teachers come to rely on the special education system to solve the problem. Referrals usually begin as early as kindergarten, a practice that often perpetuates low achievement among borderline students.
Because Dibs' parents were wealthy and could afford to have him educated at a private school, the teachers and administrators could afford to spend more time in pursuing the possibility that perhaps he was gifted and emotionally disturbed instead of mentally retarded. If the situation had been a public school, it is likely that Dibs' giftedness would never have been discovered. As one administrator who criticizes the lack of funding for gifted programs at the elementary school level puts it, "The question around town is not, 'How many merit scholars did we produce last year?' but rather 'Will we win the district football championship? Will we go to the playoffs?'" (Pulliam, 1998, p. 96M). Increasingly, the trend in public schools is toward the inclusion of gifted children in mainstream programs, giving them no specialized instruction whatsoever. Although highly talented, these stu
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