Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Philosophy More trouble More trouble More Trouble than it’s Worth When one is asked to consider the question "What makes a person intelligent?," the most common responses will often note a person's ability to solve problems, utilize logic, and think critically. These typical traits of intelligence are sometimes lumped together under the label of "raw intelligence." A person's intelligence is contained in his or her general intellect - in otherwords, how each and every one of us comprehend, examine, and respond to outside stimuli, whether it be to solve a math problem correctly or to anticipate an opponent's next move in a game of tennis. Our intelligence, therefore, is our singular, collective ability to act and react in an ever-changing world. The measuring of raw intelligence with tests continues in all areas of education. One of the most famous examples is the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT. The SAT, which analyzes a student's mathematic and grammatical abilities as well as reading comprehension and vocabulary, is used by nearly every college in America to help determine whether a student is qualified to enter that institution. Because it is assumed that the SAT can predict future achievement, certain scores could automatically dictate whether a student was in or out of a prospective program. The SAT program is a wonderful tool to be used to gauge a students aptitude, but it seems that colleges are solely basing acceptance on those criteria. What is a student to think when the first hurdle he or she must jump is a required 1300 score on the SAT to enter into any particular higher institution of learning? That this is the one and only hurdle and you mind as well not even start the race because you don’t have the right shoes. To this day, American education is dictated by the student's scores on a battery of intelligence tests, from kindergarten through university. Advocates of traditional education continue to push this paradigm of Uniform Schooling - an educational system based on national standards and efficient, cost-effective assessment in the form of multiple choice, number two pencil exams. Against this long-lived convention, though, many researchers, educators, even parents, have expressed reservation that such tests do nothing to judge a student's potential - they merely demonstrate that a child is or is not good at standardized tests. Students should not be judged by what they cannot do, but what they can do, and education should focus on bringing out the individual's potential. Until recently, this view was considered unrealistic, but now Howard Gardners theory of learning and intelligence has finally forced educators and policymakers to reconsider the pedagogical methods of the last century - the theory of Multiple Intelligence’s. Yet I still Believe that this categorization of intelligence’s into the eight or so sub groups is pointing us into the wrong direction. The Theory of Multiple Intelligence’s suggests that our culture and school systems that reflect our culture teach, test, reinforce and reward primarily two kinds of intelligence: verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical. His theory proposes that there are at least eight other kinds of intelligence that are equally important. They are "languages" that most people speak, and that cut through cultural, educational, and ability differences. They include visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal intelligence, and naturalist. Before we had two classifications, which didn’t allow for all of the other potential an individual may exhibit. Now we have eight classifications, which seemingly don’t allow the individual to be categorized in more than one. Yes, you may score highly in more than one classification, but you are still labeled as your highest level of the given intelligence’s. Why limit our students to sub groups. I do not think its possible to label any student. There are to many different kinds of people in this country with too many qualities and to many varieties of intelligence to limit them to eight classifications. Incidentally, I took another one of these Multiple Intelligence Indicator’s on-line and in both cases I scored highly in the Interpersonal category. So it seems they’ve got me pegged. Yet there is no indication that I have a natural inclination towards Bodily Kinesthetic or sports and physical activity, an area I have participated and excelled in for most of my life. I was amazed to find that my Verbal Linguistic score was also non-existent when compared to the rest, when that is what most would favor me for. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory looks extremely good on paper, but when one examines its possible implementation into today educational system, its seems it would create more problems than it would solve. Bibliography: Word Count: 770
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