"It is of the upmost importance that we recognize and nurture all of the varied human intelligences, and all of the combinations of intelligences. We are all so different largely because we all have different combinations of intelligences. If we recognize this, I think we will have at least a better chance of dealing appropriately with the many problems that we face in the world." (Gardner) This states that many people are intelligent for many different reasons. Every person has areas they excel in and educators need to adjust to the needs of their students. In this paper, I will talk about the definition of intelligence, the seven different types of intelligence, and how teachers can and should teach the intelligent and talented youth.
There are many different definitions of intelligence. Intelligence can be as broad or as specific as need be. I went with a broad definition that was in our text from this class Handbook of Gifted Education . It states that intelligence is an "ability or set of abilities that permit an individual to solve problems or fashion products that are of consequence in a particular cultural setting." This is open to a lot of discussion because of how broad it is and I wanted to expand on intelligence in my eyes. In my definition of intelligence many components are involved. It is somewhat similar in that many abilities combine to determine intelligence. In today's society, grades in school determine how intelligent an individual is, but I disagree with that. Grades have hardly any significance due to the fact that creativity isn't involved in multiple choice or fill in the blank exams and creativity is the main ingredient, I feel, for intelligence. This can be explained by people such as Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Winston Churchill. As children, teachers thought that they were at a lower level compared to the students of the same age. Maybe they weren't being challenged or maybe their creativity was so far above even the teachers.