Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences includes the following areas of intelligence:
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The other day at the Gifted and Talented workshop I attended we took Gardner's Multiple Intelligence test to find out where our areas of strength lie. I scored 100% in the following areas: Musical, Intrapersonal, Verbal, and Existential. I scored 0% in the Logical/Mathematical. The other areas were between 20-50%. This really alarmed me. While it was no surprise that I scored high in certain areas, it was disheartening and actually scary to consider the disposition of a girl walking around in life, singing little songs incessantly (musical), analyzing her thoughts all day and night (intrapersonal), talking or writing about her thoughts in volume after volume (verbal), asking the BIG questions over and over and over (existential)- and all the while this poor creature hasn't a lick of logic in her brain! Oh, my! Most of my cohorts found less extreme results. Their little bar graphs looked less severe and more moderate, bars standing tall without hitting the ceiling or floor; balanced.
The trick becomes how to help this girl get through life. How likely is logic acquisition? I want to marry Spock.
7 comments:
I will show my nerdiness with this comment, but so be it.
One of the main themes in the most recent Star Trek movie was a question posed to Spock by his mother. She asks him if "the good of the one outweigh[s] the good of the many."
Since Gardner has done us the favor of describing so many types of intelligence and since you do so well in several of these intelligences, perhaps we can apply Spock's question here. The simple answer is that the good of the one does not outweigh the good of the many. Thus, because logic is the "odd man out," so to speak, we can ascribe it the position of "the one." By extension, the rest comprise "the many." Therefore, it does not matter that you scored a zero in that category because the good of the many completely outweighs it.
Okay... one more Spock quote and I'll leave it alone:
"Logic is the begining of wisdom not the end" (Spock to Valeris STII)
Kristin, your blog is fantastic! I think it's possible to develop areas of intelligence that may not be your natural strengths; besides, you have so many areas where you excel that I wouldn't really worry about it. Also, I would definitely marry the Zachary Quinto Spock. He is super attractive.
Awe... don't sweat the results of that test. I would question the intelligence of the author of that test before questioning your own ;-)
That said, we can distinguish between intelligence and knowledge - the latter of which is often falsely (in my opinion) correlated with intelligence, though important in its own right AND easily obtainable with a bit of energy.
In that sense, while you're own desire and perhaps affinity for logical/mathematical reasoning may not be as strong as your musical inclinations, I am certain you could easily obtain much more knowledge in that area, and most likely unearth more natural affinity than 99% of the population. And for the purposes of some dude or dudette's silly test of intelligence(s), you'll have a super tall bar there, and be the envy of many a Spock.
In the end, fear not mathematics... the 123s are as easy as your ABCs =) And while mastering topology may not be trivial, neither is the art of haiku. Would have been sweet if that was a haiku.
Fact: (clearly my opinion :)
For 99.999999% of people, outcomes in life are *determined* - as in determination, and as opposed to the intelligence we so often think of being correlated with our germination.
Knowledge, determination, and a little luck account for what most *perceive* as intelligence. The first two we have control over, so to all: feel free to become "intelligent" at your leisure :)
Oh Kristin! I am so glad you forwarded me your blog link. I only had time to read a few posts just now, but I can't wait to dive deep into your writing. Your blog is much more interesting than mine, I can see that already:) Looking forward to keeping up with your updates! Love you.
I love you guys so much.
oooo i want to take that test!
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