Multiple Intelligences Newsletter, Vol 34, No 2

October 28, 2024

Hello to friends of learning,

This issue of the MI Newsletter contains a special treat, an article by Howard Gardner and two of his associates, Shinri Furuzawa and Annie Stachura, about the various locations in which intelligences exist. If you have a pet, I’m sure you’d thought “My dog is really smart” or “If my cat was smarter, she would…” Yes, we readily conceive of intelligence in other mammals, but this article goes far beyond that in considering the intelligence of other life forms and, even, not living entities. It’s well written and quite thought-provoking.

Check out: “Who Owns Intelligence? Reflections After A Quarter Century” by Howard Gardner, Shinri Furuzawa, and Annie Stachura

But first, I want to share yet another story about the power of MI. Today I met someone whose children attended New City School after I retired from there. “You know,” he began, “schools talk about learning theories and styles, and I was wary of multiple intelligences.” I nodded, I was familiar with this attitude and wondered where he was heading.

“But when my daughter was in third grade,” he said, “she’s now an eighth grader, and she had to do a report on Jane Goodall. She was given many options to do this and I thought great.

“I suggested she do a timeline of Goodall’s work with chimpanzees. That would be easy. But she had a difficult time doing this. My wife suggested that she create a diorama, but that didn’t work either. Then my daughter said, ‘I want to do a song about Jane Goodall.”

He raised his eyebrows, signifying that he had doubts about her idea, and continued. “OK, I said. I pulled out my phone, hit record, and she began to sing. It was amazing, she had all of this information about Jane Goodall, including dates, facts, and what was learned, in her song!”

I responded with a smile and said, “Yes, letting children use their strongest intelligences makes learning exciting and helps them learn better.” We both nodded.

As an adult, I suspect that you regularly use a range of intelligences. If you’re fortunate, you can use them in your “work,” however that work is defined. Indeed, I believe that the greater the congruence between your work tasks and your stronger intelligences, the more successful you will be.

At a minimum, though, I am sure that you draw from some of your multiple intelligences in relaxing and recreation. Whether you are listening to or playing music, visiting museums, creating art or crafts, attending a sporting event or working out, or enjoying mingling with other folks, that’s using one, often more, of your intelligences. As adults, we gravitate to using our strongest intelligences. Why shouldn’t we give students that some option?

What do you think of this article, “Who Owns Intelligence”? And which intelligences do you use for R&R?

TOM
Thomas R. Hoerr, PhD
MI Network

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