© Roger M Tagg 2014
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
Howard Gardner is famous as the proposer of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
He is also the author of the later (2009) 'Five Minds for the Future', which he thinks humans will need if we want to survive in future eras. These are: 1) disciplined mind; 2) synthesizing mind; 3) creating mind; 4) respectful mind; and 5) ethical mind. See this page for a summary by Peter Laburn.
In the book discussed below, he is more concerned with education into the disciplines of thinking in depth, in three main directions, namely truth, beauty and morality. He goes into each of these using an example: the Theory of Evolution, a passage from Mozart's Figaro, and the Holocaust respectively.
I have not divided my highlights into chapters.
| Page | Highlight |
|---|---|
| 23 | "I do not believe in singular or incontrovertible truth, beauty or morality." |
| "We should become acquainted with the ideals of other communities." | |
| 32 | "The sciences strive to discover patterns that obtain across (many different) objects, spheres and people; the humanities dwell on the particularities of individual persons, works and experiences." [RT: That doesn't seem to stop many people from making generalizations.] |
| 39 | "I favor depth over breadth, construction over accumulation ... (but that needs to be) rooted in the disciplines ..." |
| 43 |
"100 years ago, it sufficed to have a highly-educated elite and a general population with basic literacy skills. Nowadays, however, almost any function that can be executed through the application of regular procedures will sooner or later be computerized. To be attractive to employers, an individual must be highly literate, flexible, capable of troubleshooting and problem finding, and not incidentally able to shift roles or even vocations should his current position become outmoded." |
| 43-58 | Gardner identifies 6 trends: 1) technical & scientific breakthroughs; 2) political trends, and 'anomie'; 3) economic forces; 4) socio/cultural/personal trends; 5) a "shifting cartography of knowledge" (e.g. media, internet); and 6) postmodernism, in the sense of scepticism. |
| 81-4 |
Likewise, "brain and mind findings" include: 1) early experience is critical; 2) 'use it or lose it'; 3) flexibility of the early nervous system; 4) action and activity; 5) specificity of human abilities and talents (multiple intelligences); 6) the possible organizing role played in early childhood by music; 7) emotional coding (i.e. how we categorize our experiences). |
| 101 | Cultures make choices about how education happens. |
| 117-8 | "The disciplines I have singled out are science, mathematics, the arts and history." |
| 118 | "Students should probe with sufficient depth a manageable set of examples so that they come to see how one thinks and acts in the manner of a scientist, a geometer, an artist a historian." |
| 121 | "Most five year olds have developed a Star Wars script" (i.e., goodies beat the baddies) - but this isn't always appropriate in life. |
| 126- | Four approaches to understanding are: 1) learning through suggestive institutions (like apprenticeship); 2) direct confrontations of erroneous understanding; 3) a framework that facilitates understanding (e.g. performance by more advanced students [or 'models'?]; 4) multiple entry points, i.e. different models or starting points. |
| 186-8 | Three uses of intelligence are: 1) providing powerful points of entry; 2) offering apt categories; 3) providing multiple representations of the central or core ideas of the logic. |
| 196 | "Hands on" points of entry will typically involve physical materials. |
| 198 | "Interpersonal" points of entry will involve cooperating, or discussing. |
| 209 | The three approaches need to be 'orchestrated', not compartmentalized. |
| 249 | "It is necessary, we believe, for each individual working in a domain or discipline to develop a righting mechanism - a sense of what is proper and what is not, independent of the signals being telegraphed in the wider society." |
| Such mechanisms could include: 1) "the norms and values that one absorbs in one's youth"; 2) "a sense of connection to the rest of the community and even to all humanity" [RT: what about all life?]; 3) loyalty to one's own discipline or profession, for example not trying to avoid accountability. |
Gardner writes well - one hopes that today's educators are taking his messages on board.
Index to more highlights of interesting books
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 5th February 2014
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .