Often it seems as though American higher education exists only to provide gag material for the outside world. The latest spectacle is an Ivy League professor threatening to sue her students because, she claims, their "anti-intellectualism" violated her civil rights.

Highly intelligent, talented students need special programs to keep them engaged and challenged. But experts say too often they aren't even identified -- especially in low-income and minority schools.

A study led by researchers at The Miriam Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University suggests that teens are harming themselves at rates higher than previously suspected.

By BBC News: It has been estimated that 10% of young people in Britain have self-harmed. There are no official figures, but hospital records show that nearly 500 adolescents a week are treated for deliberately injuring themselves.

The big questions of vocation, identity, relationships, how we use our talents for ourselves and the world, how we define and nurture authentic happiness - we may never “solve” those questions permanently, but they can be particularly intense in our twenties. Perhaps especially for people who are the most capable and talented.

By Barry Schwartz -- "We like to believe, in our least cynical moments, that the U.S. is a meritocracy. Success is about talent and hard work. Luck has nothing to do with it. This attitude may well contribute to a lack of sympathy, sometimes even bordering on disdain, for life's losers. I believe that this attitude is profoundly false."

One must earn the gift through hard work, accomplishment, and good attitude. Many people view high intelligence with a mixture of fear, interest, admiration, resentment, contempt, suspicion, and appreciation. Most of us are familiar with the sometimes rather delighted observation, “Even though he was really smart as a kid, he hasn’t amounted to anything.”

Because I believe that giftedness is an inborn trait, I also believe the qualities of giftedness are present throughout people's lives, even if they are underachievers or hide their abilities.

Role models can be examples of how to discover and realize your own unique talents, and inspiration to do more, to be more authentic. A number of prominent actors and other people admired as role models have commented about being responded to that way, and about their own choices.

More than one million Americans under the age of 18 are processed through juvenile justice systems each year. There is a continuing tendency to lock up more and more troubled kids, even though the rate of juvenile arrests peaked in the late '70s and has fallen significantly since then.