Intelligences

 

Intelligences

How much of our intelligence is based on the belief that we are intelligent? Is there a fine line between "being" and "feeling", or are they really the same thing?

Psychologist Howard Gardner has codified eight types of intelligence: linguistic, logical, musical, spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. I'll bet there are even more, but the idea that different people develop different intelligences is a breakthrough that makes so much sense to me. If we are all unique, it only makes sense that each one of us has a special intelligence to offer. The vast world of creation and invention would be so limited if diverse capabilities didn't exist, just as problem solving often benefits from a new angle to reach better solutions.

I am convinced that we need to discover our own particular intelligence in order to release our personal power. We must cultivate it, develop it, and polish it until it becomes a pearl. Just as each pearl is precious because of its uniqueness, so are we.

When we are young, we base ourselves and our successes on the people around us. We are dependent on what others make us believe that we are, which is why it's so imperative to have someone who guides us in the right direction. We flounder if someone makes us believe that we have nothing to offer, and flourish when someone tells us we do. 

In a junior high school in Spanish Harlem during the 1980s, teacher Bill Hall wanted to see if he could reach more students after his lessons through the rules and strategies of chess. To his delight and the surprise of teachers around him, not only did the kids in his club learn how to play chess, but they also started to do better in school and created a tight-knit group regardless of their different ethnicities.

When the group was asked if there was anything in their school books that had made the  difference, one boy responded: 

"Not until Mr. Hall thought we were smart, and then we were."

Text: Kristen Mastromarchi

Image: www.iqlect.com