The aim of the study is to show and analyze the sit­ua­ti­on and as­pects of work with gif­ted children and te­ena­gers that are aimed at pre­ser­va­ti­on of a ge­ne po­ol of the co­untry; and re­ve­aled to be the most im­por­tant con­di­ti­on of for­ma­ti­on of the fu­tu­re highly pro­fes­si­onal eli­te in Rus­sia. The most ef­fi­ci­ent forms of es­tab­lis­hing such ac­ti­vi­ti­es are empha­si­zed; the ba­sic psycho­lo­gi­cal and pe­da­go­gi­cal met­hods of this ac­ti­vity are shown. The most im­por­tant qua­li­ti­es of scho­ol-aged children that are no­tab­le for not or­di­nary men­tal abi­li­ti­es are no­ted in the pre­sent study.

Met­hods and techniq­ues. The ar­tic­le pre­sents the re­sults of the em­pi­ri­cal so­ci­olo­gi­cal sur­vey of se­ni­or scho­olchildren and the re­sults of the sample sur­vey of se­ni­or stu­dents un­der­ta­ken in fi­ve re­gi­ons of the Ural Fe­de­ral District. The softwa­re pac­ka­ge for sta­tis­ti­cal analysis (SPSS) was used for da­ta eval­ua­ti­on.

Sci­en­ti­fic no­velty. Fe­de­ral and re­gi­onal infrastruc­tu­re ori­en­ted to work with gif­ted children is con­si­de­red in the study; the ways of ef­fi­ci­ency as­sessment are in­ves­ti­ga­ted. The con­cept «eli­te scho­ol (high-class)» is re­fi­ned. The so­ci­olo­gi­cal portra­it of the se­ni­or pu­pil tra­ined in spe­ci­ally cre­ated es­tab­lishment of the eli­te ge­ne­ral edu­ca­ti­on is pre­sen­ted.

Re­sults. The aut­hors pay spe­ci­al at­ten­ti­on to the analysis of the fo­cu­sed work with gif­ted children and te­ena­gers in the Tyu­men re­gi­on. A spe­ci­al fo­cus is la­id on the Aca­de­mic Gymna­si­um of Tyu­men Sta­te Uni­ver­sity that was inclu­ded in the list of top 25 se­con­dary scho­ols of Rus­sia. Spi­rit­ually-mo­ral val­ues and so­ci­al-pro­fes­si­onal cho­ices of se­ni­or stu­dents both of an eli­te gymna­si­um and or­di­nary se­con­dary scho­ols are re­ve­aled and com­pa­red in the co­ur­se of so­ci­olo­gi­cal re­se­arch. It is fo­und out that gymna­si­um scho­olchildren are re­mar­kab­le for the­ir so­ci­al op­ti­mis­tic appro­ach to the­ir li­fe, they are mo­re prag­ma­tic in the is­su­es of the­ir fu­tu­re pro­fes­si­onal pre­fe­ren­ces, and mo­re­over, they are ac­ti­ve in the­ir cho­ices and ca­re­er gui­dan­ce. But the­re are al­so so­me ne­ga­ti­ve is­su­es that ha­ve to be ad­jus­ted wit­hin edu­ca­ti­onal work. It is im­por­tant to ac­hi­eve as mo­re as pos­sib­le adeq­ua­te, re­alis­tic stu­dent’ self-es­ti­ma­ti­on of the­ir po­ten­ti­al and pos­si­bi­li­ti­es; to ta­ke steps for num­ber dec­re­ase «po­ten­ti­al mig­rants» among the most ta­len­ted part of yo­uth.

Prac­ti­cal sig­ni­fi­can­ce. The re­se­arch re­sults can be used whi­le de­epe­ning the sco­pe of know­led­ge on the so­ci­olo­gi­cal grad­ua­tes’ portra­it of eli­te or high-class edu­ca­ti­onal insti­tu­ti­ons. The­se re­sults can al­so lay the ba­sis for un­der­ta­king so­me steps that wo­uld ma­ke the na­ti­ve city and the re­gi­on mo­re attrac­ti­ve for ta­len­ted yo­uth. The re­se­arch met­ho­do­logy can be used by scho­lars in the fi­eld of so­ci­ology, psycho­logy and pe­da­go­gics for pre-ar­ran­ged and stra­te­gic re­se­arches imple­men­ta­ti­on.

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