NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

December 10, 1998

Parent Line: Several Kinds of Smart

Kim Bushaw, Parent Line Program Specialist
NDSU Extension Service

In about the second or third grade, I discovered that some people were smarter in some ways than in others. That's the year we reviewed addition and subtraction facts by playing a game I hated. It was called Around the World. I hated it because it meant that the rest of us would sit in our desks while the star math student would stand by each of our desks, one at a time, and fire out the answer to the flashcard the teacher was holding. He was fast. Usually there was a hint of competition only when Dean, the math whiz, got near Danny, the second-place math whiz. If Dean was ever absent, Danny would clean up on the rest of us.

Most of us have probably had the experience of marveling at someone who excelled in some area of his or her life. We might consider this a gift or talent. Would we ever consider it a special kind of intelligence? Howard Gardner of Harvard University has proposed that we may possess several kinds of intelligences: musical, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, bodily, intrapersonal and interpersonal. Gardner defines intelligence as "the capacity to solve problems or fashion products which are valued in one or more settings."

Those opposed to Gardner's seven intelligences question, "Why these seven?" In other words, they are not true believers that this school of thought has been researched carefully enough. What they do agree on is that children certainly can have abilities that are not measured on a standard IQ test. Standard intelligence tests call on the use of language and problem-solving skills. And although there are numerous problem-solving skills involved in playing an instrument (How do you get a tuba home on the bus?) or learning to carry out a flawless tumbling routine, these are not the types of skills that are measured by the usual IQ tests.

Even those opposing Gardner give him credit for helping teachers, parents and others understand the importance of thinking about their students in another way. Even with this information, most of us still weigh the report card grades heavily, knowing that jobs and futures can be dependent on these in the real world. When programs such as art and music are cut or receive limited resources in schools, it's not hard to see why children and adults alike come to view them as less important than the three R's. Gardner reminds us there are many people in the classroom who excel in these other areas and deserve to learn and practice too.

Parents who want to help their children develop in ways that aren't available to them in school will turn to extracurricular activities or simply point out their children's preferred ways of working and help them combine these into their lives and studies at home.

Think back to the most gifted athletes, the talented musicians, the glib-tongued speech and debate squad, and the ever taunted but "spatial" chess club participants. Any of these students who had a special understanding of their area and were lucky enough to be mentored by someone has probably enjoyed turning those gifts into favored hobbies or lifelong careers.

###

More than 100 Parent Line columns are in the book "Please Tell Me This is Just a Stage." To order, send $9.95 per copy to Distribution Center, Box 5655, NDSU, Fargo, ND 58105-5655.

Kim Bushaw answers the Parent Line, an information and listening support line for North Dakota parents from the NDSU Extension Service. Call the Parent Line at 1-800-258-0808 (231-7923 in Fargo) with questions about this column and other parenting topics. The Parent Line is answered 7:30 a.m. - 9:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Friday.

Source: Kim Bushaw (701) 231-1070

Editor: Becky Koch (701) 231-7875