I think part of the problem is that we phrase it as "gifted". While I was also in a "gifted" program that was completely worthless, my High School also offered

I think part of the problem is that we phrase it as "gifted". While I was also in a "gifted" program that was completely worthless, my High School also offered classes that were designed for students who wanted to be high achievers. You didn't have to test into them, you just had to want to work hard. This program was great. I loved it and learned a lot. However, it was controversial because it came at the expense of what was called "mini-school", a program for low achieving (but not handicapped) students, which basically allowed them to do very little academic work and still graduate. Trading one of these programs for another was a bad choice though. While I clearly didn't suffer negative consequences, every student that took a normal (not mini-school, not high achieving) class did, as they suddenly had a bunch of kids who didn't do well in a normal school environment disrupting their learning. The lesson I took away from this is that regardless of "giftedness" students will generally self select into the level of classes that is appropriate for them. All that the school needs to do is provide these classes. While this is a hard question, I think it is a more appropriate question than "what do you do with gifted kids"?