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What's MI?

Celebration
Multiple Intelligences (MI) is a celebration of the gifts in each child. Howard Gardner originally developed the MI principles, but Thomas Armstrong is one of the great teaching practitioners that makes Multiple Intelligences come alive.

It's more than IQ
Forget IQ. Intelligence, we are now told, takes many forms. Brains can be found from the tips of our dancing toes to the song in our hearts.

This approach to education is for anyone who has ever felt like a dummy. For the student who can't decipher the alphabet soup of algebra. For you who freeze in terror when expected to make party chit-chat. For you who inevitably drop the pop fly.

You are not dumb
You are not dumb, but intelligent, as are your children and your acquaintances. In still-evolving studies on what defines "smart," many educators and researchers are curbing IQ tests and instead talking about multiple intelligences, acknowledging everything from a gift for dance to an ability to talk to animals.

8 Kinds of Smart
It's a nice way of saying to the world that there are different ways for people to be smart. Who says IQ scores is the best way to rate intelligence? The prevalent theory of multiple intelligences says we have eight kinds of smarts. They are: word smart, number smart/logic problem-solving, picture smart, people smart, nature smart, self smart, body smart, and music smart.

Intelligence Profile
Each of us has at least four of these intelligences active in our daily lives, and the remainder may simply be undeveloped. The eight intelligences are the way you wake your children up. Some children who have been labelled ADHD who are really high energy children caught in a low energy, low challenge environment. They can be nourished by a strong diet of MI training. We have been duped into believing that schools actually develop all the intelligences.

Schools and MI
In actuality, most schools honor only two intelligences: word smart (linguistic) and number smart (Mathematical).

There are schools committed to MI as part of the curriculum. At Dover Elementary teachers and staff view the theory as another tool to reach children and plan curricula in which different strengths are included. As an example, a group assigned a project on growing plants might include a "word smart" team member to write the report, a "number smart" member to handle the data, a "picture smart" member to design a poster, and a "body smart" person to present the data to the larger group.

The MI Way of Thinking
It's a philosophy, a way of thinking. You have to think about your own strengths, and how everyone else has strengths. The physiological proof for multiple intelligences partly comes from studies on people who have lost functioning in part of the brain. Theoretically, ability in all areas would go down. But researchers found these people lost specific abilities and retained or enhanced others.

Not Just Learning Styles
Multiple Intelligences is more than a trick for teaching a recalcitrant kindergartener. It's not just a learning style. It alters the way we see the world. In the real world, when we have a messy problem, we usually bring people from different corners and perspectives together to talk about it. Think about people in our society who we really value. There is no incongruity when hockey player Wayne Gretzky compares his mental preparation for a game to that of a surgeon for an operation.

Their intelligences are different, but both are highly evolved.

By recognizing that we have different perspectives, if we allow ourselves to listen to each other and learn from each other, we all come out ahead.

8 Kinds of Smart
Word Smart (Linguistic) School was built for these students. They are wired for words. They are the DEAR ones - Drop Everything and Read. Reading and Writing come easily.
Number Smart (Mathematical) Computer nerds with pocket protectors? Maybe. But these students are wired for numbers like the Word Smart students are wired for words. They understand why 2+2=4 instead of 5 and can explain the underlying meaning of a word problem. School was built for them. This is the second intelligence honored in schools.
Logic/Problem-Solving (Mathematical) The second half of the Mathematical intelligence. This gift is not much appreciated in most rote memorization schools. These students are great at strategy games, solving intricate problems, and seeing the big picture. They often have trouble with phonics because it violates logic with too many exceptions to the rules. These students would learn to read more easily through context and sight words, rather than by sounding the words out. They come up with answers that don't fit the workbook pages. Therefore many traditional teachers are extremely frustrated by their creative thinking.
Picture Smart (Visual/Spatial) These are children who learn with their hands. They have a powerful visual sense and appreciate color, hands-on activities, computers, building models, working with artifacts. They are not stimulated by workbooks and textbooks. Teach them through learning centers and they will blossom.
Body Smart (Body Kinesthetic) These students are the ones we want to medicate. They are high energy children locked in low energy classrooms. They learn with their whole bodies. Get them up and moving and they come alive. They will tap dance through our classrooms. The PE coach understands these children. We wonder why they drop out of low energy classrooms. Many of these children are mislabelled ADHD.
Music Smart (Musical) Wired for sound, these children learn to read easily with phonics. They often find after kindergarten that music disappears completely from the classrooms. Yet they find music stimulating to learning. Music should never be extracurricular but rather a continuing source of stimulation in every subject area.
People Smart (Interpersonal) They think the books at school are to sit on so they can see everybody. They are out of their seats, talking to everyone, and managing everyone's life. They love working in a group and think they are being punished if they have to do something alone. Some teachers sense they are in a power struggle with this type of child and must break the child's spirit in order to provide proper discipline. Gifted Model Teachers see these children as LITs (Leaders In Training) and provide opportunities to develop positive leadership instead of crushing the gift.
Self Smart (Intrapersonal) They are the people who will climb a mountain or explore the farthest sea. They are our wanderers, our dreamers. Teachers can walk right pass them, missing them. They tend to be quiet, holding back their most private selves, but wishing a teacher would take time to really look at them. They are people observers, tending to sit back and watch the rest of the world. They can be severely hypercritical of themselves. They like working alone or with one other partner. They can have difficulty building friendships. They deeply want us to know their names.
Nature Smart (Nature) These children have an amazing affinity for plants and animals. They hate our schools because the windows are small and the outside world seems to be shut away from them. Their best times are outside or surrounded by living creatures. They have an amazing ability to link learning to the environment.
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