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Prior literature on the use of character strengths suggests that both deficiencies and excesses in the use of strengths can be problematic. While most school-based training in character strengths tends to focus on the former issue, an example is provided of a school-based program offered by the Mayerson Academy in partnership with the VIA Institute on Character that does not focus on deficiency but rather celebrates enhancing one's own personal key strengths. This program, entitled Thriving Learning Communities, will be implemented in 42 Cincinnati public schools this year. It aims to motivate students, as well as educators, to perform at their highest levels through encouraging increased use of character strengths. We provide an overview of the program and discuss how it may be modified by the teacher to offer a more nuanced perspective on character strengths within a gifted student population. Specifically, within a gifted classroom setting, we discuss ways in which educators can encourage gifted students to understand the importance of balancing their strengths and effectively matching their use of strengths to the situation. In addition to focusing on the use of signature or top strengths, we suggest a program that would aid gifted students in deciphering when it is most and least appropriate to use top strengths, through a dial-up/dial-down framework for targeted strength use.

The authors describe broad patterns and key developments in gender and education scholarship to provide an overview of the state of the field. They incorporate historical developments shaping research patterns, broad tensions and shifts, and emerging trajectories in inquiry. Cognizant that reviews are inherently political endeavors in both reflecting--and creating--"the field," the authors suggest that reviews such as this one are inevitably partial and political, even as they provide useful insights into scholarly trends. The dynamic body of work that constitutes what the authors refer to as "gender and education" scholarship (writ large) encompasses diverse inquiries, theoretical investments, sites of analysis, and conceptions of gender that go beyond a straightforward reporting of women's and girls' gradual progress over time in accessing education. The authors argue that gender remains a central force in organizing social relations and educational processes with an array of implications for lived experience that merit sustained scrutiny.

The "Bakke" decision marked a turning point in higher education. Tested again most recently in "Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin," affirmative action policy remains in place even as the Roberts Court shakes its foundation by demanding a degree of administrative oversight not pursued by previous Courts. In spite of Clarence Thomas' 1987 pronouncement to the contrary, the legal debate over affirmative action continues more than two decades later. Sound evaluation of this policy requires an understanding grounded in its history. Revisiting the debate over affirmative action requires a survey of the landscape for learning in the 1960s and 1970s. In this article, the author revisits affirmative action and higher education.

"Newsweek" ran an article on "The Homosexual Teacher" in December 1978. At the end of a tumultuous two-year period framed by Anita Bryant's anti-gay campaign in South Florida and John Briggs' proposition to bar gay and lesbian educators from working in California public schools, reporters concluded, "Most homosexual teachers are deeply plagued by job anxiety." That observation likely came as no surprise. In this article, the author explores the Bryant and Briggs campaigns to see if this exposure of the recent past can shed light on some longstanding school questions. Anita Bryant and John Briggs used students as a rhetorical tool to target gay and lesbian teachers. Their camp exploited teachers as a wedge in the battle over gay rights. And conservative activists considered their attack on the gay rights movement the linchpin in their campaign to advance a far-reaching political agenda. In the conclusion, the author reflects upon what it means to objectify students and teachers in this way, moving them about as pawns on a political chessboard. But first, the author takes another look at the rhetoric that characterized the Bryant and Briggs campaigns. (Contains 80 footnotes.)

This article presents an analysis of LGBTQ education history with an Ohio narrative to underscore a point: four decades into the publication of LGBTQ history it remains a critical enterprise--essential to a collective understanding of the past, vulnerable to those who do not approve of its subject(s), and undergoing significant change. The Ohio story helps establish a premise for this argument. As one traces the contours of LGBTQ history, one should not lose sight of what this history means to people--even in its most basic form. The author surveys existent lesbian and gay education history and marks significant questions in the field. She explains why these questions matter to the history of education more broadly, and highlights influential, relevant histories of sexuality and gender. In the course of the analysis the author explores the ways theory and history may necessarily intertwine in this scholarship. Since the study reflects current contours of the field, the parameters of the essay address same-sex loving and not necessarily nongender normative (trans) histories in education. (Contains 77 footnotes.)

As a cultural and university historian focusing on Europe and the United States, Sheldon Rothblatt is more interested in understanding the multiple bearings of liberal arts education as it has developed across the ages. The American high school, from its origins in the 19th century to the contemporary period, represents only a fraction of the educational terrain that Rothblatt surveys. While commentary on the purposes and effectiveness of secondary schooling in the United States has been rich and varied, the task of plotting U.S. high schools against Rothblatt's academic map for liberal education remains. Such a study may prove more enlightening for audiences who approach the subject from general discussions on the liberal arts but it promises to enhance one's understanding of the historical development of secondary schooling in the United States, as well. In the first phase of this research project, the author examines landmark documents--the "Report of the Committee of Ten," "Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education," and "The American High School Today"--for traces of the six characteristics of liberal education as defined by Rothblatt: (1) character formation; (2) leadership; (3) breadth; (4) personality development; (5) critical thinking; and (6) general education. This article focuses on the "Cardinal Principles." (Contains 1 figure and 4 notes.)

A decade after Kinsey published his famous studies on sexuality, a special legislative committee in Florida targeted gay and lesbian teachers in an investigation that led to the dismissal and loss of credentials for scores of educators. The Florida purge of 1959-1964 remains without parallel in educational history in terms of its intensity and scope. This historical analysis traces the actions of the legislative committee, the State Department of Education, the Florida Education Association, and the Florida Supreme Court in pressing discrimination against gay and lesbian teachers into law as the locus of oppression shifted from a renegade legislative committee to a permanent state institution.