Thursday, May 6, 2010

A boring world!



Being called stupid, at school, was fairly routine! You failed a test, in Math, and not only were you stupid but your very future was in jeopardy. By definition, the flip side of being stupid was being intelligent. Those were the types, that had their collective noses glued to books all the time & came up with the right answers ( as from books ) and invariably indulged each other with high fives every time, one or other of the group cracked a problem, which would be incomprehensible to the rest, of the class. Intelligence, as we know and schools seem to tout is restricted to books and further drills down to Mathematical & vocabulary skills.Of what good is being good at a sport? Does it make any sense to sing well? Is it any good being a painter?
Due to the inability of many a teacher & schools to comprehend that intelligence, is not a mathematical equation, but a fuzzy, grey area, a whole lot of students have gone through life believing that they were stupid.Many have spent, time in a cobwebby corner, having been termed a dunce, contemplating a bleak future!
A story- A bright young kid, is all set to join an upmarket & prestigious school, after passing the mandatory, math & English test. He says in his biography " On receiving the math paper, I stared at it, for a while. Then I entered my name on the foolscap, posted the #1 and copied the first question. Not knowing what to do next, I circled the # 1, very neatly and handed in the paper after waiting for an hour"
Sir Winston Churchill went on to become one of the most admired leaders, that the last century has thrown up.Was Churchill stupid?

And then came the theory of MI. The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are:

Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
Musical intelligence ("music smart")
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")


Gardner also showed that different people march to different tunes & learn differently. So if a person does not learn something, maybe you should check the way he is being taught and wait a while before he/she is termed stupid and relegated to the dunce's corner!

Also, I belive that the world would be very boring place, if we only had guys, who were strong in mathematical & language skills!Just imagine, a world devoid of the 'Pirouette' of a ballerina!

2 comments:

Shankar HN said...

Read the book "world's greatest Crooks & Conmen" from cover to cover. Our world would be a boring place without them.

Intelligence is way beyond repeating what is there in the books. It is more related to how one manages oneself through many a problems life presents. Test of real intelligence is how one manages through difficult times in ones own creative ways. There are no text books written on how to handle individual encounters.

Even the servant that comes to work in our houses is intelligent worthy of respect.
Shankar

Prasad FC said...

Intelligence cannot be captured in a couple of doamains!

It is ridiculous.