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Education

Frames of Mind: the Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Joe Biden has few skills in assimilating new information or in solving problems. What type of intelligence does he have? Hmm… hard to say.

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By now, everyone knows that Joe Biden has few if any skills in assimilating new information or in solving new problems. If only his “81” million voters knew this in advance. What type of intelligence does he have? Hmm… hard to say. Perhaps excerpts and key notes from the award-winning book Frames of Mind: the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, third edition, 2011, by Professor Howard Gardner, will shed some light on the matter.

Contemporary methods of assessing the intellect are not sufficiently well developed to allow assessment of an individual’s potentials or achievements in, say, navigating by the stars, mastering a new language, or composing music with a computer, among 100s of other tasks.

Previous efforts to establish independent intelligences have been unconvincing, chiefly because they rely on only one or, at the most, two lines of evidence. Separate “minds” or “faculties” have been posited solely on the basis of logical analysis, on the history of educational disciplines, on the results of intelligence testing, or on the insights obtained from brain study.

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Psychology and Testing

Until recent decades, most psychologists would agree with the assessment that intelligence testing was psychology’s greatest achievement, its chief claim to social utility, and an important scientific discovery in its own right.  Most scholars within psychology, and most outside the field, are now convinced that enthusiasm over intelligence tests has been excessive and that there are many limitations in the instruments themselves and in their uses.

▪ Much of the information sought in intelligence tests reflects knowledge gained from living in a specific social and educational milieu. In contrast, intelligence tests rarely assess skill in assimilating new information or in solving new problems. This bias toward “crystallized” rather than “fluid” knowledge can have astounding consequences. No existing technology is explicitly designed to test an individual’s intellectual profile.

▪ The idea of a single “horizontal” problem-solving apparatus is attractive, in fact the carefully selected problems to which it is said to apply turn out to be disturbingly similar to one another. In common with Piagetian psychology, nearly all the problems examined by information-processing psychologists prove to be of the logical-mathematical sort.

▪ It is time that our understanding of human intellect be informed by the findings that have accrued in the biological sciences since the time of Franz Joseph Gall. Yet, because psychologists and biologists inhabit different environments, the task of marshaling biology to explain human intelligence has barely begun.

Individual Adaption

When it comes to the most complex of human capacities, such as language, the individual can withstand even massive damage, including the removal of an entire hemisphere, during the first few years of life and still acquire the ability to speak in a reasonably normal fashion: this recovery suggests that large portions of the cortex remain uncommitted (and thus available for diverse uses) during early childhood.

▪ Numerous studies with rats and other species have confirmed that an enriched environment produces more elaborate behavior as well as palpable changes in brain size. Effects can be surprisingly specific.

▪ Of all the gifts with which individuals might be endowed, none emerges earlier than musical talent. Though speculation on this matter has been rife, it remains uncertain just why musical talent emerges so early and what the nature of this gift might be.

▪ An emerging sense of self proves to be a key element in the realm of the personal intelligences, one of overriding importance to individuals the world over.

An Indispensable Component

Various forms of personal intelligence clearly arise from the bond between the infant and its caretaker — in almost all cases, the infant and its mother. Evolutionary and cultural history have combined to make this attachment link an indispensable component of normal growth.

Comparative psychologists are sympathetic to the possibility that even the most treasured facets of human nature may be found, if in simpler forms, in other animals.

For every goal currently being pursued, there is presumably a set of intelligences which could readily be mobilized for its realization, as well as a set of intelligences whose mobilization would pose a greater challenge.

Viewing Intelligence in a Different Light

We have become much more aware of the roles of history, politics, and culture in circumscribing or thwarting our ambitious plans and in guiding them down paths that could not have been anticipated.

Intelligence should not be assessed in the same ways at different ages. The methods used with an infant or a preschooler ought to be tailored to the particular ways of knowing that typify these individuals and may be different from those employed with older individuals.

Even as computers offer a useful way to think about the marshaling of intelligences to master educational goals, the potential use of computers in the process of matching individuals to modes of instruction is substantial.

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Jeff Davidson is the world's only holder of the title "The Work-Life Balance Expert®" as awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is the premier thought leader on work-life balance, integration, and harmony. Jeff speaks to organizations that seek to enhance their overall productivity by improving the effectiveness of their people. He is the author of Breathing Space, Simpler Living, Dial it Down, and Everyday Project Management. Visit www.BreathingSpace.com for more information on Jeff's keynote speeches and seminars, including: Managing the Pace with Grace® * Achieving Work-Life Balance™ * Managing Information and Communication Overload®



 
 
 

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Education

My Woke Local Library in Woke America

At the rate of new woke holidays, the whole year will eventually fill up

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American Thinker:  I took time out during a weekday, two weeks ago, to visit my local library for the first time in many months. I know they’ve already changed the name. It used to be called the “Cameron Village Regional Library,” but apparently Cameron was a very bad man, a long time ago.

The name change, however, came because owners of the shopping center, which was built on land owned by people who had held slaves, chose to drop its connection to the contemporary Cameron family. Hmmm, I wonder how many properties, owned by people who had held once slaves, the shopping center owners have lived on.

Ultimately, the Wake County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to rename the library to the “Oberlin Regional Library.” Is that not a heartwarming move?

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Change Happens

As I stroll around the library, I notice numerous changes. There are many more large-print books. The youth section is larger as well and offers a variety of woke titles which, in some instances, would alarm even the most liberal of parents. Every other book is about “brown girl” or “the boy who feels like a girl inside.”

In perusing the audiobook shelves, I see that it is a fraction of what it used to be. Most everyone has switched to downloads. The physical CDs, the kind I like to pop into my car player, are becoming rare, but isn’t it safer to insert one into the CD player than to fiddle with one’s cellphone to air a podcast?

At the librarian’s desk, I see all manner of flyers and announcements. One flyer stands out in particular. It is a page which lists all library activities for the coming month. This list interests me because one never knows — there might be a visiting author or some type of how-to program that is worthwhile to me.

Closed in Observation

The middle of this sheet says: “The library will be closed on June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.” Juneteenth, bad grammar and all, is a federal holiday since 2021, commemorating “the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.” Wait a second, the Emancipation Proclamation occurred on January 1, 1863. Did I miss something? The library will be partially open on July 4. Is that now a lesser holiday?

Juneteenth is acknowledged on the anniversary of the order by a Major General Gordon Granger proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865.  So, now we ignore the Emancipation Proclamation?  One keen social observer commented that the left still thinks of minorities, especially black people, as their pets who they like to spoil with little baubles like Juneteenth.

Real equality is out of the question. To let people rise of fall on their own merits? Well those poor folks would never find their way without the largess of tax payers. And that’s the ploy to keep them “in their place.” Simply vote Democrat and eventually you’ll be just fine. In the meantime, enjoy all the great gifts. And don’t forget to vote.

Perpetual Baubles

What about Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, celebrated on the third Monday in January? It is now a federal holiday. Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays in mid-February used to be known by every school-aged kid as I was growing up. These birthdays have now been homogenized and combined, and called Presidents Day, with not even 1 in 10 Americans knowing what that relates to.

Malcolm X said: “The worst enemy that the Negro have is this white man who runs around here drooling at the mouth professing to love Negros and calling himself a liberal, and it is following these white liberals that has perpetuated problems that Negros have. If the Negro wasn’t taken, tricked, or deceived by the white liberal, then Negros would get together and solve our own problems.”

“I only cite these things to show you that in America, the history of the white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery designed to make Negros think that the white liberal was going to solve our problems. Our problems will never be solved by the white man.”

Dedicated Months

We have a whole month devoted to black history, each and every day in February. Depending on where you turn, you’ll gain news and information about black authors, politicians, poets, cooks, freedom fighters, soldiers, actors, inventors, and pioneers of industry.

The consequence of note of all these holidays is that government employees receive yet another paid day off without having to bargain for it. Nearly everybody else, who actually work for a living, still go to work on those days. Few people care about the holiday except for those seeking to conjure up the next one.

Still, perhaps we ought to have Black History Month for a few more years but, eventually, it needs to fade and simply be part of American history. Otherwise, are we also going to have a Hispanic history month, Jewish month, Asian month, Muslim month, and so on? Are not all the historical experiences, and contributions, by all these groups simply a part of American history?

Years ago, when I lived in D.C., one of the morning radio shock jocks made an inexcusable joke for which he should have been fired but he was not. This was long before the wokesters took over the media and he knew what the boundaries were. In observation of Martin Luther King’s birthday, he said, it’s too bad four more civil rights leaders weren’t slain so that we could have a whole week off. A terrible statement by any means, but he thought it was funny.

Fill Up the Year!

The odd thing is, at the rate of new woke holidays, it wouldn’t be surprising if the whole year was eventually filled up. Every group that has ever been aggrieved in one way or another, at any time, gets a holiday or a week, or why not a month?

So let’s have a short people’s day, a stutterer’s  day, a nearsighted people’s day, and on and on, until every single person in America is covered (except, of course, white males, Christians, and Jews). Let’s devote a whole month to those who have a different sexual outlook, inclination, or orientation than everyone else. Let’s hold it in, say, June. Let’s call it “Pride Month.” What do you think of that?

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Education

Youth Under Assault

The Left corrupts and thwart today’s youth from cradle to high school, and from college to young adulthood

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American Thinker — The Biden administration aims to make America a third-rate nation.  In 28 months, our corrupt, doddering, feeble “leader,” a puppet to Barack Obama and other leftists, has initiated legions of programs and policies to decimate our nation.

Atop the list is dislodging the American family as the primary social unit.  The Biden administration seeks to keep wealth redistribution schemes and welfare sufficiently attractive to disincentivize marriage and on-the-scene fathers.

While They’re Young

The leftist agenda for destroying America though its children is multifaceted:

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  • Confuse children at a very early age.  Convince them that they were born as the wrong gender and need to use surgery to make themselves look like members of the opposite sex.
  • Concurrently, make it difficult for parents to even know what is occurring.
  • Infuse the schools with teachers who preach transgenderism, sexuality, crossdressing, and a variety of other such behaviors.  Indoctrinate children each day.
  • De-emphasize reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Focus on equity, feeling good about yourself, disparaging the U.S., and denigrating White people.
  • Discourage children from being proud Americans.
  • Schedule drag queen story hour so that children are exposed to men who mock women and prance around as if it’s commendable behavior.
  • Intimidate teachers.  Make them fear using the wrong pronouns and being fired even after twenty years of dedicated service.
  • Convert children into little fascists, ready to report on any adult, including their own parents, who “step out of line.”

Fractured History

  • Support the 1619 Project, which asserts that American history begins with the introduction of slaves.  Never mind that tens of thousands of people lived here before slavery flourished in the South and that millions of people afterward had nothing to do with the slave trade.
  • Magnify America’s role in the global slave trade.  Ignore that of 10,700,000 slaves who withstood the horrific Atlantic crossing, 388,000 (3.6%) disembarked in America.
  • Overlook that while Denmark was the first nation to abolish slave trade shipping in 1803, Britain and the United States followed four years later.  Downplay that America fought a four-year Civil War, where 600,000+ troops, 360,000 of them for the Union, died, with millions more suffering life-altering casualties.
  • Censor the fact that since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, the U.S. has spent $21+ trillion on affirmative action, equal opportunity, welfare, and other transfer payments — a staggering sum equal to $500,000+ per black person, for every year anyone was alive from 1965 to the present.
  • Don’t teach America’s role in World War I or World War II, and how we defeated the Nazis, vanquished fascism, and won the 44-year Cold War against an evil empire, the Soviet Union.

Un-level the Playing Field

  • Ensure that the average U.S. student lacks the academic skills to compete with immigrants from China, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Japan, and Vietnam, whose per family income exceeds that of American Whites within one generation.
  • Overwhelm school systems by allowing torrents of illegal aliens to overpopulate small towns, while draining municipal budgets, health care facilities, first responder departments, and all else that supports a healthy community.
  • Install a buffoon, Miguel Cardona, as secretary of education to promote a transgender invasion of women’s sports.  Make sure that females face grossly unfair competition.  If they protest, shun, bar, or cancel them.
  • Support unions and school boards that target parents who wish to safeguard the education of their children.  Label these parents as enemies of the state.  Install a corrupt, demented attorney general, Merrick Garland, who regards concerned parents as domestic terrorists.

Toss Out Merit

  • Dumb down testing.  Do away with letter grades where possible.  Throw out the SAT and GRE to benefit those who cannot academically compete.  Remove the written essay as a college entrance requirement.
  • Promote and eventually graduate those students who can barely read even after twelve years of school.  Then claim that school systems are racist.  Later, when these academic laggards can’t compete in the economy, blame White society for these ills.
  • Encourage the underemployed to join Black Lives Matter and Antifa.  Pay them to be vocal and violent at events where no protests would otherwise occur.  Ensure that no one spends more than a night in jail, regardless of the crime, before he’s bailed out and exonerated by lawless, George Soros-funded district attorneys and dishonest prosecutors.

The Prescription

So there you go.  Corrupt and thwart today’s youth from cradle to high school, and from college to young adulthood.  This is the prescription for a doomed generation, courtesy of the twisted policies and programs of the Biden administration.

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