Howard Gardner will forever be associated with his theory of multiple intelligences. Charles Dietz discovers that the Hobbs professor in cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has a lot more to say on the nature of giftedness.<\/p>\n
Howard Gardner has mixed news for the would-be genius: we can\u2019t all be exceptional \u2013 but we can still learn a lot from those who are. Indeed, he believes it is the duty of educators to draw their students\u2019 attention to the lives of exceptional individuals. In his book Extraordinary Minds<\/em> he examines the lives of four such individuals, seeking to understand the nature of genius and draw lessons for the rest of us.<\/p>\n Over the last 30 years Gardner\u2019s theory of multiple intelligences or MI has gained great influence in the education community.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences<\/strong><\/p>\n Some believe that this championing of non-academic forms of intelligence has helped create the delusion that everyone is a genius.<\/p>\n But this is to misrepresent his approach. With MI theory he is egalitarian, seeking to broaden our concept of talent, so that all students are given an opportunity to excel. At the same time he has devoted much time to case studies of exceptional individuals. He has been motivated partly by a fascination with the small percentage of individuals who stand out from their peers and have a profound affect on the world. But he also has the aim of establishing rules from which everyone can learn \u2013 a science of extraordinariness. In doing so he attempts to steer a middle course between two opposing points of view: that geniuses are a species apart or that they are completely indistinguishable from the rest of us.<\/p>\n Gardner argues that we must see genius as a dynamic relationship between three factors:<\/p>\n He recognizes that nature, environment and luck all contribute to genius. Mozart was clearly neurologically well equipped to learn music, but he would not have become so exceptional without the support of his music-loving parents and a receptive cultural environment. Einstein had the luck to be around at the right time \u2013 if he had been born 50 years before, the state of scientific knowledge would not have allowed him to make his revolutionary breakthroughs.<\/p>\n Gardner finds that most geniuses come from backgrounds where parents encourage work and\u00a0discipline. Genius normally requires hard work over a long period, with at least 10 years spent mastering a domain and another ten spent working on the problems that will establish a person\u2019s exceptionality.<\/p>\n However, there are exceptions to this rule. Prodigies usually appear in domains such as music, maths or chess, which contain definite rules and where the development of subtle personality skills is unnecessary. The opportunities provided by the emergence of new domains, such as software or the internet, are another exception. However, Gardner rejects the idea that genius is merely the product of hard work, arguing that \u2018only those with talent are likely to practice for thousands of hours\u2019.<\/p>\n Gardner stresses the importance of role models, the company of equally talented individuals and contact with the domain in which an individual\u2019s talent lies: \u2018Extraordinariness is most likely to emerge if aspiring individuals are exposed to extraordinary models; ponder the lessons embodied in those models; and have the opportunity to enact critical practices in a relatively protected setting.\u2019<\/p>\n Lessons for the non-genius<\/strong><\/p>\n Gardner is suspicious of courses that claim to teach genius, especially in the space of a weekend. He is also critical of the attempt to emulate the surface characteristics of exceptional persons, such as the ability to do with little sleep. However, he does have advice to offer us. We can\u2019t all have the creative genius of Mozart or the insight of Virginia Woolf but we can make changes that positively affect our own and other people\u2019s lives \u2013 and if we want to do this we can learn from three habits of mind common to the extraordinary individuals he has studied:<\/p>\n Gardner admits that extraordinariness may not be completely desirable. The focus that geniuses bring to bear on their work may have negative consequences for those who are close to them. Furthermore, genius may not necessarily be used for the good, as the examples of Hitler, Stalin and Mao should remind us. In light of this, another of Gardner\u2019s principle aims in studying exceptional individuals is to learn how we can unite talent and a sense of responsibility to create \u2018humane extraordinariness\u2019.<\/p>\n The extraordinary minds that Gardner focuses on in his book epitomize four basic areas of human activity:<\/p>\n These individuals, despite their flaws (eg Freud\u2019s tyrannizing of his followers and Gandhi\u2019s cold treatment of his wife), all stand as examples of \u2018human extraordinariness\u2019. Gardner calls upon educators to bring such examples to the attention of students, and ends with the wish that, despite his aim to \u2018describe rather than prescribe\u2019, the stories of these lives can also inspire.<\/p>\n Extraordinary Minds: Portraits of Exceptional Individuals and an Examination of Our Extraordinariness<\/em>, Phoenix, 1998, ISBN 0465021255<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Howard Gardner will forever be associated with his theory of multiple intelligences. Charles Dietz discovers that the Hobbs professor in cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has a lot more to say on the nature of giftedness. Howard Gardner has mixed news for the would-be genius: we can\u2019t all be exceptional …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/pexels-liza-summer-6348142-600x400.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/author\/webdev\/"},"featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/pexels-liza-summer-6348142-600x600.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teachingexpertise.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A science of extraordinariness<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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The development of genius<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Humane extraordinariness<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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