Here is how we are inclined to view the tiff between the Johnston County Board of Education and parents of academically and intellectually gifted youngsters: The school board wants to make gifted instruction available to as many children as possible. AIG parents fear a watering down of the program.

We tend to think the school board’s heart is in the right place. After all, don’t the schools have an obligation to challenge every child to reach his or her full potential? Then again, mom and dad want what is best for their child, and right now, AIG parents send their children to one center offering the best instruction the county can offer in every subject.

We’re not AIG parents, so we don’t know whether their much publicized fears are justified. School leaders have thought about two AIG centers — one in Smithfield and one in Clayton. AIG parents fear that means one center for the arts and one for the sciences. Subsequently, parents say, children gifted in math would not have access to instruction in music.

Parents also fear that a proposed update of the AIG plan would turn what amounts to an education yacht into a rudderless dinghy. School administrators say AIG parents are reading too much into the proposed update.

But to their credit, school leaders postponed updating the plan when they met earlier this month. They want the superintendent’s staff and AIG parents to sit down to talk about their differences. That’s the right call to make.

Citizens often complain that their elected leaders don’t listen to them. They can’t say that about their school leaders, at least not in this case, and we suspect the AIG program will be better because of it.