Multiple Intelligences

In 1983 Dr. Howard Gardener developed the idea of Multiple Intelligences.  The idea is there are a varieties of areas that people can be smart/skilled in and that our method of IQ testing and education does not address all these different areas.  Dr. Gardner came up with eight different types of intelligence, of which seven are discussed and used by psychologists and educators.

These multiple intelligences are:

Linguistic - Linguistic Intelligence means being smart/skilled with reading, writing, and speaking.  Authors, public speakers, news reports, and comedians all need a high Linguistic Intelligence.

Logical/Mathematical - This type of intelligence means being number smart.  Scientists, mathematicians, and chess masters all have high Logical/Mathematical Intelligences.

Musical - Musical Intelligence is, perhaps obviously, being smart/skilled in music.  This relates to singing, composing music, and playing an instrument.

Intra-Personal - Intra-Personal Intelligence means being smart about yourself.  Poets who focus on emotions, many psychologists, actors, and people like Siddhartha and Thoreau all have high Intra-Personal Intelligence.

Inter-Personal - This type of intelligence means being smart about other people.  Psychologists, motivational speakers, and people like Machiavelli all have high Inter-Personal Intelligence.

Bodily/Kinesthetic - Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence refers to being smart about bodily movement.  Actors, gymnasts, dances, and other athletes, along with soldiers and fire fighters all have high Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence.

Spatial - This type of intelligence means being picture and space smart. Artists, pilots, and race car drivers all need a high Spatial Intelligence.

Everyone is skilled in one of these areas of intelligence and many people will be smart in multiple areas.  People like actors, poets, psychologists, and Air Force pilots need to be skilled in two or three intelligences to  succeed in their professions.

However, schools often focus on the Linguistic and Logical/Mathematical Intelligences, sometimes to the exclusion to the other types. This has become more frequent with the advent of high states testing and NCLB.  If children do receive education in the other types of intelligences it is often through extra-curricular activities like art, music, and gym, and these extra-curriculars are the first to go when there are problems with budgets or schools need to pull their test scores up. Intra and Inter-Personal Intelligences often aren't addressed in schools and are rarely, if ever, actively taught to children.

Ideally schools would have the funding and time to address every type of intelligence and work the different types into the same lessons so that all children have access to areas they succeed in, and learn material in a method that increases their chances of true understanding.  When learning anything classes can read about the lesson (linguistic), learn equations or logical expressions for it (logical/mathematical), observe charts (spatial), listen to or write songs about the material (musical), how what the class is learning affects people (inter-personal), and apply the learned material to the body/themselves (bodily/kinesthetic and intra-personal).  When all the types of intelligences are worked into the lesson every child in the class has a higher chance of success.