Yes, me too, acs. I love quantifiable data, but these are PEOPLE! We're not always quantifiable.
I think that just as a mother's intuition has merit that shouldn't be ignored because "she's not an expert" (BAH!), so also should we pay attention to the observations of a person trained in gifted psychology. Moms aren't always 100% right, but they're usually more right than wrong. Ruf is certainly not 100% right for every child, but there's something there that might be useful for some people.
That's worth having around, even if it isn't perfect, provided we interpret the book as case studies and extrapolations therefrom instead of exclusionary definitions of GTness, and provided there are other tools available for those who need them.
