Welcome to the return of Gifted Children Monthly as GIFTED-CHILDREN.COM

My wife, Anni, and I conceived and created the original GCM in 1979 in recognition of an obvious societal need. Over the course of 10 years we invested more than $1.6 million in developing a publication that served the needs of hundreds of thousands of parents, teachers, and gifted children.

In 1989, as a result of a reversal in our economic circumstance, due to our also having financed another very worthwhile but also commercially unsuccessful publication, Venture Magazine, we were forced to suspend our sponsorship and support of the mulit-award-winning, but not financially self-sustaining, GCM.

Now, with the blossoming of the Internet providing a much better and more cost-effective medium of two way communication, we again wish to focus resources on one of the most important groups of young people in our country or any other, gifted children.

It is these children, so very under-served by the government and schools, who possess the talents we as a society need. It is these children -- in many ways the most deprived of minorities because of popular myths of lack of need -- who have the abilities to make a difference for all of us.

If not identified early in the development cycle and appropriately nurtured, the gifted child will frequently and understandably yield and succumb to school, peer, and all too often parental demands for "normalcy," thus depriving all of us of their inherent potential contributions.

All children do not have the same resources, including talents and skills. All children do not find themselves in supportive environments. All children do not but should have equal opportunity to flourish. There are a lot of forces at work resulting in the "dumbing down" of America and all too few programs that are inspiring, motivating, and relevant to those having superior potential.

Those of us involved with Gifted-Children.com believe that teachers and peers should give children possessing a range of intellectual, creative, and artistic talents at least the same level of respect and acclaim as those who exhibit superior athletic talents.

Gifted-Children.com is a networking and information medium dedicated to making a difference in the pursuit of educational excellence for children of special talents and abilities. To this end, we will sponsor and promote gifted children advocacy through whatever means are appropriate.

Thank you for joining us.

Arthur Lipper III