Most of the teachers that gifted children interact with have no training in gifted education. What preconceptions do they bring to the classroom about the origins, expressions, and value of giftedness? This questionis answered by analyzing the metaphors that preservice teachers create regarding gifted students. The metaphor of a gifted child as a "diamond in the rough," for example, would equate to a conceptualization of giftedness as rarity, potentiality, and commodity. Attend this session and compare preservice teachers' conceptions of giftedness to the conceptualizations of prominent researchers in the field and discuss classroom implications.