In 1986, Leon Lederman helped establish the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, one of the nation\u27s first residential secondary schools created specifically for gifted students in the sciences. Kids hate to be different, Lederman recognizes, and very bright kids know they\u27re different when they\u27re in normal schools, and they react to that differentness in many different ways. But here, they\u27re all the same. They\u27re all . . . academically gifted and work together and collaborate and . . . have excellent teachers. While the building was a hand-me-down from the overbuilding of schools in the early \u2770s, it works, and it\u27s a very splendid school
