About the Book

A Case of Brilliance by Rebecca Lange Hein is both a personal story and a call to action. When the author discovered, after much confusion and denial, that her two children were profoundly gifted, she and her husband, Ellis, began to learn about the special needs of this rare population.

Both children asked their mother for cello lessons at the age of two. As Rebecca taught Annette and Lewis she began to discover that profoundly gifted children learn in ways that are radically different from other children. Although she was an experienced music teacher when she began cello lessons with Annette and Lewis, she had no prior training in gifted education, and found that she had to invent her pedagogy as the lessons progressed.

After Annette and Lewis were IQ tested at the Gifted Development Center in Denver, Colorado, Rebecca had to come to terms with her own level of intelligence. Stephanie Tolan writes in the Foreword, "Parents of profoundly gifted children seldom begin with a clear sense of their own extraordinary intelligence. Their personal journey of discovery must be undertaken at the same time they are struggling to figure out what their children´s needs are and how to meet them. This aspect of the book, told with both passion and humility, may be among the most valuable, especially to women who still find it difficult to recognize or acknowledge the extent of their own gifts."

Educators will find material in this book that could help to convince their administrators that special programs for the gifted "are not a privilege, rather...an act of prevention that could benefit every man, woman, and child on this planet." As the author´s own awareness grew about the sad state (both past and present) of gifted education in the United States, she became more radical in her point of view about what all gifted children need. She has become a passionate public speaker on behalf of gifted children, and in so doing, has resolved all of the past puzzles in her own life that were caused by her own unidentified giftedness.

Read this book and meet Rebecca, Ellis, Annette, and Lewis Hein, a home schooling family whose story offers compelling evidence that gifted people have unusual educational and emotional needs that must be served. As the Heins discovered, the greater the gift, the greater the necessity for early intervention. In the absence of such intervention, as with the author´s own story, a lifetime of confusion can result. With proper action, which Ellis and Rebecca chose on behalf of their children, the teaching and learning of profoundly gifted people becomes an exciting adventure: unpredictable, exhilarating, and deeply satisfying.

Reader Comments

Casper, Wyoming
I think that...your book, A Case of Brilliance ...is one of the best, if not the best book that I have read.
A., in Casper, Wyoming

Boulder, Colorado
I LOVE [your book]...I think this will be helpful to many profoundly gifted families. You´re an excellent writer! I really enjoyed reading it and...I´m so glad you wrote it. It will help people!
A., in Boulder, Colorado

Lake Oswego, Oregon
[Your] book is excellent! While it was the quality of your writing which immediately grabbed my attention, the story you told was exquisitely compelling. You shared your family with...generosity and wisdom. There is so much there, including the mirror and insight you offered me into my own family and to my own life. You distilled to its essence so much of what I have learned about how to live my life more authentically, with acceptance for all that I am. I know that [this book] will be of tremendous value to so many who read it.
T., in Lake Oswego, Oregon

Casper, Wyoming
What an amazing story. It´s so well written. [Thanks f

About the Author

Rebecca Lange Hein has a Master’s degree in Cello Performance from Northwestern University School of Music. She is a teacher, performer, and newspaper columnist. Her love affair with music began at age sixteen when she began ignoring her high school academics to practice the cello three to five hours per day. After completing her Master’s degree she taught at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Ripon College, and the Oshkosh Suzuki Talent Education Center, for which she also served as Artistic Director. She and her husband, Ellis, home school their two profoundly gifted children, Annette and Lewis.