Mulitiple Intelligence Paper Essay Example

THE THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES One problem modern American education continues to face is the measurement of intelligence. Often it is merely test scores, or even a single test score which determines IQ and either brands or exalts many children for life. “Howard Gardner has questioned the idea that intelligence is a single entity, that it results from a single factor, and that it can be measured simply via IQ tests” (Smith 2). In essence, Gardner is telling educators not to judge a book by its cover. He also pointed out that simply because a child does not do well in, say, English or spelling, does not mean the child is not more gifted in other areas. “Dr. Gardner says that we should also place intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world in which we live. Unfortunately, many children who have these gifts don’t receive much reinforcement for them in school” (Armstrong 3). It would seem that Gardner’s theories are more critical these days when the notion of “No child left behind” focuses on test scores of a school district, rather than evaluating the achievements and progress of each individual child. American education, one can easily say, has to stop the numbers game, where IQ tests are supposed to prove the success of “teaching.” Gardner is opposed to the theory that schools must teach facts, students must remember them and recite them on a test. “When students are lectured on a subject, they are overloaded with facts, statistics and other nuggets of information that are to be regurgitated at a later date in the form of some assessment test. But what does a student gain by completing the statement ‘________ was the English general who surrendered at the end of the War.’ An answer of Lord Cornwallis gives the student the good grade and the school administrators the statistics to wave around and say, ‘Another educational objective has been met.’” (Carvin