Deb­bie Ja­cob

You strug­gle with Eng­lish class­es in school, but when it comes to play­ing an in­stru­ment, you rock. You write well, but maths is not your cup of tea. You do all right in maths, but when it comes to sports, you're a run­away hit. By now you prob­a­bly re­alise that your brain is like no one else's brain. You don't think and feel the ex­act same way as every­one around you thinks or feels. You should al­so be recog­nis­ing that when it comes to learn­ing, every­one has strengths and weak­ness­es.

Every­one learns dif­fer­ent­ly, and it's im­por­tant to keep this in mind as you start school to­day. It's amaz­ing how many peo­ple still think that learn­ing comes down to be­ing able to do Math and Eng­lish. Grant­ed, those are im­por­tant sub­jects, but in­tel­li­gence can be mea­sured in many dif­fer­ent ways.

In 1983, Howard Gard­ner, a Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor, came up with some­thing called mul­ti­ple in­tel­li­gences. He said IQ test­ing was not the on­ly mea­sure for in­tel­li­gence and that it was not even a good mea­sure of in­tel­li­gence. In­stead, he said in­tel­li­gence should be mea­sured in eight dif­fer­ent ways.

It's im­por­tant to be aware of these in­tel­li­gences so you can bet­ter un­der­stand how you learn. You'll al­so be­gin to re­alise how spe­cial you re­al­ly are. You can re­lax and be con­fi­dent in your strengths and work on your weak­ness­es when it comes to learn­ing. So what kind of brain do you have? Here is a sum­ma­ry of Gard­ner's Mul­ti­ple In­tel­li­gences.

1. Lin­guis­tic in­tel­li­gence-If you're good in lan­guage, read­ing writ­ing and or speak­ing, you have lin­guis­tic in­tel­li­gence, which is one of the main ways tra­di­tion­al ed­u­ca­tion mea­sures in­tel­li­gence.

2. Log­i­cal-math­e­mat­i­cal in­tel­li­gence-If you are good in math and have good rea­son­ing skills, you ex­cel in this in­tel­li­gence, al­so mea­sured well in tra­di­tion­al ed­u­ca­tion.

3. Spa­tial in­tel­li­gence-If you're good in vi­su­al im­agery, film, pic­tures and you're a vi­su­al learn­er, this is your in­tel­li­gence. This is an in­tel­li­gence that is be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant in our vi­su­al age.

4. Bod­i­ly-Kines­thet­ic in­tel­li­gence-If you ex­cel in sports, you pos­sess this in­tel­li­gence. Don't let any­one tell you that this is not a valid in­tel­li­gence. Many peo­ple don't have the in­tel­li­gence you have. Good ath­letes earn a great deal of re­spect-not to men­tion mon­ey-from this in­tel­li­gence.

5. Mu­si­cal in­tel­li­gence-If you're good in mu­sic, you pos­sess this in­tel­li­gence. You usu­al­ly do bet­ter in maths as well if you pos­sess mu­si­cal in­tel­li­gence.

6. In­ter­per­son­al in­tel­li­gence trans­lates to "peo­ple smart". You're the life of the par­ty, but more than that you have a way of or­gan­is­ing and in­spir­ing peo­ple. You're a leader who brings peo­ple to­geth­er and gets things done. The late Princess Di­ana could be cat­e­gorised as a ge­nius rep­re­sent­ing this in­tel­li­gence. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, she didn't seem to recog­nise it and gain con­fi­dence from it.

7. In­trap­er­son­al in­tel­li­gence-You know about your­self, how you work, what you do well, how you learn and you are able to max­imise every op­por­tu­ni­ty be­cause of it. Peo­ple pos­sess­ing this in­tel­li­gence can ac­com­plish a great deal be­cause they un­der­stand their brain. They make the most of their time.

8. Nat­u­ral­ist in­tel­li­gence-You're na­ture smart. You know how to in­ter­act with na­ture and get the most out of the en­vi­ron­ment while work­ing in har­mo­ny with the en­vi­ron­ment.

Do some re­search on the eight in­tel­li­gences and check out the Web site at the end of this col­umn. Un­der­stand­ing your brain can open up a whole new world for you. Once you un­der­stand how your brain works and how you ap­proach learn­ing, life and learn­ing be­come less frus­trat­ing and more chal­leng­ing. If you get a chance, check out any of Howard Gard­ner's books. Here is a good list to start ex­plor­ing Gard­ner's work.

1. Frames of Mind: The The­o­ry of Mul­ti­ple In­tel­li­gences-This book out­lines Gard­ner's the­o­ry in a clear, un­der­stand­able way that is a bal­ance of in­tel­lec­tu­al thought and vi­su­al ex­am­ples for every­one to see and learn about this fas­ci­nat­ing the­o­ry of in­tel­li­gence.

2. Five Minds for the Fu­ture-This book is not tech­ni­cal­ly about mul­ti­ple in­tel­li­gence, but it does ex­plore Gard­ner's cat­e­gories of five minds: dis­ci­plined, syn­the­sis­ing, cre­at­ing, re­spect­ful and eth­i­cal. These are ways of think­ing that Gard­ner has iden­ti­fied as cru­cial to suc­cess in this cen­tu­ry.

3. Cre­at­ing Minds: An Anato­my of Cre­ativ­i­ty Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Ein­stein, Pi­cas­so, Stravin­sky, Eliot, Gra­ham and Gand­hi-In this book Gard­ner ap­plies his the­o­ry to the lives of great peo­ple who are vivid ex­am­ples of each in­tel­li­gence. For those who like vi­su­al, con­crete ex­am­ples to learn, this is the book about mul­ti­ple in­tel­li­gences to read.

4. The Dis­ci­plined Mind: Be­yond Facts and Stan­dard­ised Tests, the K-12 Ed­u­ca­tion that Every Child De­serves-Gard­ner takes this the­o­ry of mul­ti­ple in­tel­li­gences and turns it in­to a work­able blue­print for ed­u­cat­ing chil­dren by cre­at­ing a frame­work for learn­ing that fo­cus­es on a child's par­tic­u­lar in­tel­li­gence. This is a whole new way to vi­su­alise ed­u­cat­ing chil­dren.

Check out these Web sites for more in­for­ma­tion on mul­ti­ple in­tel­li­gences:

1. Mul­ti­ple In­tel­li­gences by Dr Thomas Arm­strong http://www.thomasarm­strong.com/mul­ti­ple_in­tel­li­gences.php

2. Howard Gard­ner, Mul­ti­ple In­tel­li­gences and Ed­u­ca­tion www.in­fed.org/thinkers/gard­ner.htm.