{"id":242226,"date":"2010-01-28T12:55:38","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T17:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=36003"},"modified":"2010-01-28T12:55:38","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T17:55:38","slug":"multiple-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/242226","title":{"rendered":"Multiple interests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contrary to what many people may think about the originator of the theory of multiple intelligences (MI), Howard Gardner<\/a> spends little time these days thinking about his breakthrough. As he told a crowd during remarks at Askwith Hall on Tuesday (Jan. 26), \u201cI don\u2019t wake up and say, \u2018Hey, there\u2019s a sexual intelligence or a cooking intelligence.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardner reflected on his famous theory \u2015 in which he posits that all humans possess numerous autonomous intelligences rather than a single intelligence that can be measured through a tool such as the IQ test \u2015 at an Askwith Forum<\/a> called \u201cMultiple Intelligences: The First 25 Years.\u201d His theory made Gardner one of the most famous academics in the world, earning him the first MacArthur Prize Fellowship and honorary degrees from 26 universities. Gardner, who is the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education<\/a>, was also named one of the world\u2019s top 100 leading public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect <\/em>magazines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heuristic value of this theory simply cannot be overstated,\u201d said Dean Kathleen McCartney<\/a> of Harvard\u2019s Graduate School of Education. \u201cHoward\u2019s theory of multiple intelligences has been inspiring the work of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers for more than 25 years<\/a>, not just here but around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling himself a \u201clifer,\u201d Gardner came to Harvard in 1961 as an undergraduate. As founding member in 1967 of Project Zero<\/a>, of which he is senior director, Gardner began studying children\u2019s artistic development. At the same time, he began research at a veterans\u2019 hospital, studying patients with brain damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MI theory would never have been spawned if I hadn\u2019t been working with these two populations,\u201d he said. \u201cThat turned out to be the critical spark that led to the ideas, because every day I would see children who had scattered intellectual profiles, [who] were not very good at school, or vice versa.\u201d Gardner found himself immersed in data about what children could and couldn\u2019t do. \u201cI\u2019d try to make sense of it, and it was not easy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 1979, the Bernard van Leer Foundation awarded the School of Education more than $1 million to probe the nature of human potential. Gardner decided to focus on human cognition using disciplines such as evolution, various cognitive profiles and processes, different cultures, and human abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know I\u2019d come up with the theory of MI,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cI thought, here\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put together all this stuff I had been observing and seeing and make sense out of it.\u201d What Gardner discovered was that the human mind operated more like several computers related to one another. These computers, or \u201cintelligences,\u201d are linguistic, logical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, and spatial.<\/p>\n

Gardner largely credited his use of the word \u201cintelligences\u201d as pivotal to the theory. \u201cI would not be standing here today in this hall if I called it seven abilities or seven powers,\u201d he said, even though he could not recall how he selected that word.<\/p>\n

The theory led to his 1983 book, \u201cFrames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.\u201d Gardner recalled how the theory initially made people uncomfortable, but also seemed to resonate with educators, even though he admitted he never really thought about education.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it was public reception of the theory that pushed Gardner into a level of fame rarely seen by academics. In fact, Gardner pinpointed the start of his \u201c15 minutes of fame\u201d at a 1984 meeting of the National Association of Independent Schools<\/a>, where his arrival in the packed and noisy room in New York\u2019s Hilton Hotel immediately caused it to become silent.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Gardner decided not to focus his entire life on MI. Still, 15 years ago, he added an eighth intelligence, naturist. And he has spent many years ruminating on whether there is a ninth intelligence, existential, which contemplates the big questions of life, such as: What is love? Why am I here? Who am I? However, Gardner said that he still needs more evidence on that one, so for now he suggests there are eight-and-a-half intelligences.<\/p>\n

These ideas continue to spread globally, even though Gardner said he has had little to do with what we might see as MI in the world. Today there are Asian milk drinks (promising to develop each intelligence), books, conferences, and schools dedicated to the theory. Although Gardner initially resisted addressing the implications of MI, he found that other people developed their own. While it has been interesting for him to watch people assimilate his work, this prompted a shift in Gardner\u2019s own beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to myself, if I developed these ideas, I can\u2019t simply say it\u2019s up to other people how to use them,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they\u2019re being abused \u2026 I have to take responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past 15 years, that notion has largely inspired Gardner\u2019s efforts on the Good Work Project<\/a>, which identifies individuals and institutions exemplifying the meaning of positive work that encompasses three characteristics: excellence, engaging, and ethical.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first work, and I make no apologies for it, was about intelligences, and a lot of the work on Good Work is about the kind of human being you are,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cThe true implication, whether it\u2019s here in this School or the rest of the University or anywhere in the world, [is that we] really need to focus on that \u2026 you have a world where [some] people are good people but don\u2019t use their minds well, [and other] people use their minds in ways which are not worthy of human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contrary to what many people may think about the originator of the theory of multiple intelligences (MI), Howard Gardner spends little time these days thinking about his breakthrough. As he told a crowd during remarks at Askwith Hall on Tuesday (Jan. 26), \u201cI don\u2019t wake up and say, \u2018Hey, there\u2019s a sexual intelligence or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}