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Title: Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner ISBN: 0-465-02510-2 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: March, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.95 (20 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good, Bad, Interesting, and Important
Comment: Perhaps every good book has some axe to grind. In any case, knowing why it was written often helps more than anything else to understand what a book is about. In this case, the book is supposed to help deflate books like "The Bell Curve," and Arthur Jensen's seminal "The g Factor," which together argue that intelligence exists, is sociologically fateful, and highly heritable (i.e., that if everybody had the same genes for it, most of the variation presently observed in intelligence would not exist).
This is related to "Herrnstein's syllogism" which says: intelligence significantly determines social status, and is also highly heritable, therefore, under equal opportunity in a free and fair meritocracy, social status will still be significantly heritable. This, of course, is considered politically unacceptible by many if not most Americans today (although Thomas Jefferson apparently accepted it, cf. his "natural aristocracy"), and so Gardner has been warmly received as a foe of it.
Gardner's tactic is simple: he denies that intelligence exists, or at least that IQ tests measure intelligence. Instead he postulates "multiple intelligences," such as "kinesthetic intelligence" (physical/athletic coordination/skill), and "social intelligence" (social grace/ability). Musical talent too gets a re-name, but I forget what it is.
So as you can see, all this, while certainly interesting (since all these various talents are certainly interesting to explore and very valuable) basically amounts to what an ordinary person with common sense usually calls a "purely semantic argument."
In other words, Gardner does not show that there is anything wrong with Herrnstein's heresy besides a choice of words. Remove the term "intelligence," and plug in the term "IQ test score," and the same politically heretical conclusion follows, thus: IQ test score significantly predicts social status, IQ test score is highly heritable, therefore in a free and fair meritocracy social status will be significantly heritable. Gardner has done nothing to forestall the dreaded heresy. He has, however, allowed people to believe that he does, and thus enjoyed an unearned boost from the forces of political correctness, as other reviews will show.
How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one. Neither can calling athletic ability, musical talent, and social grace "multiple intelligences" do anything to change the biological heritability (or lack thereof) of socioeconomic status.
The meaning of a word depends on how people actually use it. If most ordinary English speakers call athletic ability, musical talent, and social grace "talents" rather than "intelligences," then that's what they are. Conversely, if IQ tests do measure what most people do call "intelligence," then IQ tests measure intelligence. To the extent that these things are true, they're just true by definition.
When it comes to the facts behind the words, Gardner's "intelligences" may themselves be just as heritable, if not more so, than traditional IQ test scores, and thus may even add to the expected biological heritability of social class. Gardner's work on the nature of various talents may be interesting, but his reputation as an ally of political correctness is a sham. The only thing politically correct about the MI theory is its capricious abuse of language in the service of an Orwellian attempt to alter reality by changing what things are called.
(As if to confirm, by reductio ad absurdum, the political motivation behind Gardnerism, I noticed posted on the wall of my kids' nursery school the other day, a new addition to the quiver of Gardnerian "intelligences." This latest one is called "environmental intelligence," or something like that, and is supposed to be----what else?----the ability to appreciate the natural environment. Obviously this sort of thing can go on to infinity, with each passing political whim giving birth to new Gardnerian "intelligence." No doubt we shall soon discover "democratic intelligence," which is the measurable variation in the natural ability of different children to appreciate the truth of the social-democratic worldview.)
However, if you're just looking for a good book on these various human talents, go for it.
Rating: 5
Summary: It's all in how you look at it...
Comment: Howard Gardner's 'Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences' is a fascinating book that helps to explain how and why different people seem to learn in different ways and possess different skills and talents. Gardner's main thesis throughout the text is that there is not one thing called intelligence, but rather several different types of intelligence that work together (or, sometimes, play together) inside each person's overall intellectual development and structure.
Gardner begins his discussion with an overview of the idea of multiple intelligences. The idea of different kinds of intelligence is hardly new, as Gardner concedes, but that idea having been formed, it is rarely carried forward save by the most innovative of teachers and thinkers. Why does a person, for instance, remember particular teachers from elementary or secondary school days rather clearly, while others not at all? Beyond the subject matter and interest, there is a manner of teacher connecting with the student that taps into dominant and active kinds of intelligence, despite the subject matter at hand.
Potential Isolation by Brain Damage
This establishes an autonomy of the function of a particular kind of intelligence from others, thus helping demonstrate uniqueness and separation.
The Existence of Idiot Savants, Prodigies, etc.
That certain kinds of intelligence can be highly developed in some to an extraordinary level also helps demonstrate uniqueness - for instance, rarely is the musical genius likewise a genius in all (or even many) other intellectual areas.
An Identifiable Core Operation or Set of Operations
There must be something that the intelligence processes or does in a particular way differently from others - for example, we process mathematical information and linguistic information in different ways.
Distinctive Development History
Intelligence, even if gifted naturally, has a development line that can be traced from earlier to later proficiency.
Evolutionary History and Plausibility
Intelligence can evolve to higher levels (this is readily seen in science and mathematics); likewise, intelligence can be lost in different arenas.
Experimental Data Support
Intelligences can be isolated and studied - linguistic and spatial abilities are often used as experiments easily documented.
Psychometric Finding Support
While the IQ test is hardly the final arbiter, there are ways of materially charting the relative state of intelligences of people in comparison with one another.
Susceptibility to Symbolic Expression
Intelligences should have a means of symbolic expression and transmission - linguistic intelligence can use words spoken and written; musical intelligence can use written and sound symbols, etc.
Using these criteria, Gardner proposes the following list of intelligences, alerting the reader that while this list is broad and encompasses much of human intelligence, it is not an exhaustive list.
Linguistic Intelligence
Musical Intelligence
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
Spatial Intelligence
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
Personal Intelligence
Most of these items are fairly clear - we know that linguistic intelligence involves language, words, speech, and the understanding and use of such tools. Similarly, logical-mathematical intelligence is fairly well understood. It is on the basis of these two intelligences that most of Western academics is founded and evaluated - even the primary measuring instruments such as SAT tests recognise the difference between mathematical and linguistic abilities by separating out those tests and scoring them differently.
Musical intelligence is likewise understood. It is an intelligence people can tap into for enjoyment even if the sophisticated understanding of theory is not present, unlike the main part of logical-mathematical intelligence.
Spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences are sensed by athletes, dancers, and others who use their bodies in ways that exceed normal abilities. These are intelligences that are closely related. A quarterback or a ballet dancer needs to have both an awareness of body motions and abilities as well as sense of the space involved for the action. However, these are separate intelligences. An architect may have a great sense for spatial requirements and have no real bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.
Perhaps the most difficult to express is the idea of personal intelligence. This is likewise the one intelligence that Gardner concedes he might have the most difficulty with in defining, symbolising, and expressing. It involves an ability to interact with others and with oneself. Perhaps Einstein is a classic example of a savant in logical-mathematical intelligence while being impaired in the personal intelligence arena - not having a good sense of himself and his relationships with others, with time, with place, etc. Religious leaders and diplomatic persons tend to be high in this intelligence.
In the third part of Gardner's book, he explores the education and application of intelligences. Gardner explores the educational systems of many cultures, past and present, to illustrate ways in which different kinds of intelligence are cultivated. A hunter needs good bodily-kinesthetic abilities as well as good spatial abilities honed to a high degree. City-dwellers tend to need linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities to a higher degree.
'As compared with hundred or even thirty years ago, talk about the development of intelligence, the realisation of human potential, and the role of education is very much in the international air.'
The ways in which all kinds of intelligence, including the very-difficult-to-teach personal intelligence, can be cultivated. First is the requirement of recognition of different kinds of intelligence and the ways in which students respond. In my theology class last semester, we had students who were divinity students, counseling students, and church music students. To have required the same pattern of assignment for each of these groups would have been unfair. So, one person turned in an audio tape as accompaniment for her theology paper. Another student framed her theological discussion in terms of a counseling session. These permitted the students to tap into their stronger intelligences while still learning what was valuable from the basic course materials.
This is a valuable book for teachers, pastors, counselors, parents, supervisors, and anyone who wants a clearer definition of what is working inside oneself as intelligence.
Rating: 4
Summary: not a liberal and the book was still good
Comment: intelligent people would agree with me when i say that a unique approach to an otherwise tired theory is more than welcome. on the other hand, some readers from glenville, NY can suck it. If you are a close-minded mechanical conservative tight-@ss who cant appreciate a new idea, nor accept that creative minds might be just as much a contributing member of society as your self-righteous politican or tight-wad teacher, then this book might not be for you. stick to something more classic, like The Bible, or The Prince, by Machiavelli.
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Title: Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century by Howard Gardner ISBN: 0465026117 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 20 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice by Howard E. Gardner ISBN: 046501822X Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach by Howard Gardner ISBN: 0465088961 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: May, 1993 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: 7 Kinds of Smart: Identifying and Developing Your Multiple Intelligences by Thomas Armstrong ISBN: 0452281377 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Best of Multiple Intelligences Activities by Teacher Created Materials Inc ISBN: 1576904644 Publisher: Teacher Created Materials Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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