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...if they keep out of trouble and off the dole, it's good enough. I am much more concerned about the gifted children, for these are the seed corn of the civilization.

My, you sound like a pompous ass. Are you Al Gore? Maybe John Kerry?

You know, Ronald Reagan was thought a dullard by a lot of people. He turned out to be one of our greatest presidents. He inspired thousands upon thousands of people. Influencing others to greatness, is far greater than personal accomplishments.
Early in life Einstein was considered to be average, if maybe a little slow.
What about Lincoln?
Howard Hughes never earned a diploma, and was a self taught aircraft engineer.
Thomas Edison had a 4 year formal education.
Dave Thomas founder of Wendy's was a high school drop out.
Erik Demaine was homeschooled. He's the youngest person to ever be made a professor at MIT.

There are many people who have been great successes either being homeschooled, or had very little formal education, or were thought ordinary.

Though I think education is important, to a certain extent. Its not the beginning and end all of a persons worth or acclomplishment. There are more "gifted" people who never accomplish anything or live up to potential. Versus ordinary people who excel and impact others.

Far from every gifted child would grow into something extraordinary, but those growing into something extraordinary disproportionally come from the "gifted" group. Thus it is good to look at it as an enrichment process in, say, precious metal mining.
The "gifted" group is an ore concentrate, not pure platinum. And yes, some metal is left in tailings. But mining platinum necessarily involves concentrating the ore and then processing the concentrate. Same here.
Murray and Herrnstein in their "Bell Curve" documented some of it: it is this group [not exclusively - there will be exceptions, but predominantly]- rises up no matter what, and it is in our shared interest that they get the best possible education, among other things.

Though I think education is important, to a certain extent. Its not the beginning and end all of a persons worth or accomplishment.

Well said! I admire people based on how they treat others, not on how much useless information they might know. And common sense is far more important than the results of any IQ test.