teachers to use with all children. This raises the performance of gifted and
regular children and has led to the extraordinary results achieved by Bright
IDEA. We look forward to continuing the controlled research methodology
over the course of the grant to get a better understanding of these issues.”
At Thomasville Primary School, the demonstration site for Project
Bright IDEA 2, Phyllis Lupton, former principal and director of Project
Bright Tomorrow, said, “Bright IDEA works with every child. It nurtures
every child. It makes every child reach a higher level of expectation and
achievement. In most cases, Bright IDEA students’ test scores increased
by 50 to 100 percent. But as good as the test data are, the important thing
is that the students are becoming—and staying—excited about learning.
They are becoming lifelong learners.”
Mary Watson, director of Exceptional Children, North Carolina
Department of Public Instruction, stated, “Bright IDEA shows a new,
exciting, and highly productive path for education in this country. Edu-
cation and political leaders may have to broaden their thinking and poli-
cies now that we have demonstrated a more natural and far more effective
classroom approach than is the norm today.”
Lessons Learned with Habits of Mind
and Gifted Intelligent Behaviors
The heart and mind of both the pilot project, Bright IDEA 1, and the
research project, Bright IDEA 2, is the instructional infusion of the Habits
of Mind/Gifted Intelligent Behaviors in every aspect of teaching and learn-
ing. In both Bright IDEA programs, teachers consistently report amazing
results of children’s higher-level vocabulary and deeper understanding of
concepts and applications of the intelligent behaviors with their real-world
experiences. Children from very impoverished environments have been
quick to use the vocabulary of GIB at the most unusual and unexpected
moments in their classroom activities. Parents have even reported their
children making connections within their family experiences and the
intelligent behaviors. Sometimes children counsel their parents about
their intelligent behaviors! As teachers witness the growth of their students’
understanding of the intelligent behaviors, the teachers’ own understand-
ing deepens with the students’ internalization. This deeper understanding
is reflected with the consistent infusion of the intelligent behaviors in
330 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind