Growing up, the focus was 100% on IQ, and success in school. The assumption was, if your IQ was high, you would be successful. Yet so many people I know, myself included, had high IQs, but weren’t able to translate that into success coming out of university. At the time we could have been spared a lot of pain and confusion if we’d only realized that IQ can only take someone so far. We needed to nurture multiple intelligence in kids.
Yesterday I interviewed Dr. Thomas Hoerr (pronounced Her), the head of the New City School, a pioneer in teaching to the whole array of intelligences. They teach an approach based on multiple intelligence for kids (MI) which has produced excellent results and is used as a model by many schools.
Hoerr talked about the 8 commonly recognized intelligences. These include:
- the scholastic intelligences: linguistic and logical-mathmatical intelligence
- the interperson intelligences: intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence
- the rest: bodily-kinesthetic, musical, spatial and naturalistic intelligence.
Dr. Hoerr shared ways to nurture other intelligences, and how to avoid having our children be casualties of the school system. Interestingly enough, although I did very well in school, in hindsight I too was a casualty of a system that created the false expectation that my high IQ would be enough to guarantee my success. When that didn’t happen, I thought there was something wrong with me because I wasn’t capitalizing on my high IQ. Instead, under an MI approach, I would have seen that I needed to develop some other intelligences, including the interpersonal intelligences, in order to be successful.
If you want the best for your child in life, which you do, then you owe it to yourself to take a few minutes to listen to this powerful interview. Just knowing that people are intelligent in different ways can be profoundly inspiring for your child. If your child is not particularly gifted in the traditional scholastic intelligences, this will allow him or her to maintain a healthy self-esteem, and also to find ways to learn that work with his or her gifts.
It is profoundly self-affirming to recognize our strengths and capitalize on them, not to repeatedly try to learn using methods that don’t work for our brain. We live in a wonderful time in so many ways. Learning how to work with the whole brain and all the types of intelligences is such a major change from how most of us were taught in school. We owe it to our children to give them the benefit of the incredible work that is being done for multiple intelligence for kids. Tom Hoerr has an incredible depth and breadth of experience that he shared with us this week.
To listen to the interview, click here.
I agree with this perspective 100%. Growing up I had a pretty high IQ and always was able to score very high on tests and school grades when I tried… but I was mostly (whether I knew it or not) gaming the system. In hindsight this was hubris and a mistake.
With my kids now (ages 5 and 3) I am definitely going to stress well rounded development and NOT get so hung up test scores and grades. Getting a C or whatever is fine as long as they are really put forth effort in other areas of their lives. I think this is just a much more realistic and healthy way to view “success.”
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Jacqueline Green Reply:
March 1st, 2011 at 2:45 pm
I agree with you Mark that the focus should be on putting effort into their lives, and not just beating the system. It is so possible to be bored by the latter and miss the joys and success that come with the former.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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Thanks for the interesting article.
Its not enough for a kid’s future to be depended on High IQ alone. As Mark has put it, stressing well rounded development is key. Allowing my son to have a holistic learning experience has taken me alot of time and patience. But I believe its worth every moment and when the time comes, he will be equipped with the knowledge and passion to choose what success would mean for him, and not anyone else.
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Jacqueline Green Reply:
March 1st, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Passion is a key ingredient to success, and often fuels the acquisition of knowledge. I’m glad you resonated with this article. Thanks for sharing!
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I don’t agree with 100% IQ only we must don’t forget EQ alsso
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Jacqueline Green Reply:
March 1st, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Indeed, great point. EQ is often even more important in overall success!
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I can agree with many parts of this article, specifically the idea that a high IQ does not guarantee success. I score in the 150s which makes me a “genius.” It shows in my choice of hobbies, reading material, education, conversation, etc…, but I am definitely a failure by society’s standards. I am ridiculously shy, uncomfortable with people my own age, non-assertive and indecisive. In my mid 30′s, I have a graduate degree, but no “real” career. In fact, the high IQ is almost a handicap for me because I simply do not think the same ways that “normal” people do and I can’t do small talk. I think I’d be happier with a slightly above average IQ. (I’ve seen studies that indicate 120 as a sweet spot while anything higher begins to be awkward.)
In my experience, (and I graduated from high school in 1996,) schools focused on grades which are quite different from IQ. Without good study habits and EQ, high IQ does not automatically translate to good grades. I think I had a 3.0 GPA–not horrible, but certainly not exciting. My IQ score was the highest in the graduating class, but not once was I noticed or selected for the “gifted” programs. On the other hand, several of our valedictorians with 4.0 GPAs scored in the very average IQ range proving that success in school had more to do with habits and drive than it did raw intelligence. Note that I say “one” of our valedictorians. We had about 20 out of less than 500 students. IQ wise, maybe 1 out of 1000 will be “geniuses” and maybe one out of 50 will be extraordinarily gifted, yet we handed those 4.0s out to a statistically unrealistic number of students, most of whom were not intellectually gifted but simply worked and socialized well.
Because classrooms are overcrowded, most teachers simply do not have the time, (or even the education,) to recognize the underachieving gifted students like myself. We sit in class bored because we aren’t in gifted classes, yet we can’t get into gifted classes because our grades reflect our boredom! I’ve had people argue that if I’m smart, I should have worked the system, but the thing is, when you are a teenager you don’t always have the maturity to realize what’s best for you. This is made worse when you have disinterested parents. I didn’t get my act together until I went to a mediocre college and finally reached my potential, but by then it was too late to get the good scholarships or to get into the good colleges.
As a result, I will be very aware of my own child’s abilities so that I can nurture rather than ignore them. Given my IQ and that of his other parent, as well as the environment in which I will raise him, chances are good that he too will be a “genius.” I don’t want to push him, but I certainly want to help him make the most of his abilities.
Finally, I agree that we need to nurture EVERY child’s specific form of intelligence instead of trying to make everyone an intellectual giant. The other forms of intelligence are just as important to society and there is a place for everyone. If we gave each type of intelligence equal weight, we’d probably see more fair pay in society rather than allowing artists to flounder while engineers, (for example,) make six figures.
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Jacqueline Green Reply:
March 1st, 2011 at 2:39 pm
I appreciate your thoughtful, and insightful comments. I love your awareness of multiple intelligences, despite the fact that you rate so high on the type of intelligence that our society rates the highest. I have read a lot about the challenges of being so incredibly gifted. Your son is so lucky to have a parent who will bring out his innate abilities in a way that no one was able to do for you.
Thanks so much for sharing.
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The author and it’s commenter are probably right. The relation of IQ -EQ is one to consider to be success. Therefore we us a parents needs to be aware in that issue. And i think that MI covers IQ – EQ concern (for my point of view; that’s why its called multiple.) ..
Regardless of IQ, EQ or Mi; you PARENTS is the key of success of your child..
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