I have to say that a lot of the conversation about "future leadership" strikes me as pretty silly. My son is very gifted, but is not now, and likely will not ever be, a social leader. Maybe he will come up with a major innovation in science, maybe he won't. I'm quite certain he won't be a CEO of anything.

None of that means that he shouldn't receive gifted education at his current level. Our school system has determined that the "point" of gifted education is to "create our future leaders". What rubbish. So instead of doing math and science acceleration or enrichment for my son (who is a mathy, sciency kid), he is being offered a pullout that focuses on "social studies", "multicultural diversity", and "communication". You must be joking. And what are they going to do for his math where he is three years ahead?