Stop Using The Wrong Type of Intelligence

“ A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What can be more unpleasant, if not frustrating, than doing something you don’t like to do, something you can’t seem to get good at it no matter how hard you try?

I really believe that we are all born with great potential, we are all born with great gifts and talents, talents that need to be shared with the whole world.

“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”  Benjamin Franklin

We have to identify them and we have to work with them. I know so many talented people who are not using their gifts, their tale. It’s a shame to work hard on something that you aren’t quite talented, but, to have talent and let it go to waste, that is a tragedy for me. Why die with the music in you? Why do it? It will be like you haven’t lived a single day in your life, like you haven’t lived your life at all. The life you have lived was not yours, not who you were supposed to be. I know a beautiful girl with such an amazing voice, a girl who is to afraid to pursue her dream of being a musician. She sings so beautifully, it’s incredible.

She keeps on doing all kind of different things that make her feel useless and stupid, but she’ll do them anyway… for that’s what her parents tell her it’s best for her. She went to a school that her family chose for her, where she studied economics and because it was too hard, she quit and went to another school where she studies computers, also chosen by her family, and she hates it. She feels so lost, and has no idea who she is anymore and what she wants to do with her life. Sad story, and unfortunately there are many like this one out there.

“ Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” David Frost

I guess you agree with me when I say that we all have things that feel so natural to us, while others, no matter how hard we try, no matter how much effort we put into it, we won’t get the results we want. If we take the scientific approach, according to the psychologist Howard Gardner, there are distinct types of intelligence, seven, to be more precise, and we might posses one, two or a more of them. Now you might understand why you loved math so much in school, but could not stand reading those literature books, why this girl I was talking about hates computers and economics, but loves to sing…

I know I was really good at everything I studied in school, except math. I always had a problem with math. I wasn’t failing or something but I had a hard time understanding it. I had to spend an awful lot of time in order to get it right, and that was a waste of time and energy for me, it really was. Enough about me, let’s go back to the seven types of intelligence.

1. THE LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE,

The first type of intelligence is the linguistic one, where those who are possessing this type of intelligence love to write, they love to read, they enjoy doing crossword puzzles and also to tell stories. I know for sure that I am one of them.

2. THE LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL TYPE

These people are interested in categories, patterns and relationships. They enjoy solving arithmetic problems, experiments and strategy games. So, if math was giving you a hard time in school, you might now understand why was that.

2. INTRAPERSONAL IS THE THIRD TYPE OF INTELLIGENCE

The people who have this type of intelligence are self-motivated and very aware of their own feelings and they also tend to be very shy.

4. BODILY-KINESTHETIC WILL BE THE FORTH TYPE

Those who are in this category, tend to process knowledge through bodily sensations, they like doing things with their hands. Many of the times they are athletic, dancers, good craftsman/woman. They enjoy working with their hands.

5. SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

The fifth category is spatial  intelligence. These people tend to think in images and pictures and they might work as architects, builders, painters and so on. They enjoy mazes and jigsaw puzzles.

6. THE MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE

The musical  will be the sixth type of intelligence, and as you have assumed already, they enjoy singing and music in general. These people tend to be discriminating listeners, which is the most basic type of listening.

7. THE INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

The seventh and the last type of intelligence, is the interpe rsonal intelligence. These people are very good communicators, good leaders, people who are very good at understanding other people’s feelings, emotions and motives. And now, here comes my question: “What’s the deal with the IQ tests?” As far as I know, they are mostly based on the logical-mathematical type. I remember a while ago, I heard a story about a school where they tested the young children with these IQ tests, and based on their results, the children were put in different classes. Of course, you had the class for those who had a high IQ and also the class where you would have those with a lower IQ. From my point of view, this is so wrong.

The teachers will definitely treat those with a higher IQ better, give them more responsibilities, more homework to be done, will encourage and motivate them more, while on those with a lower IQ, they will do the opposite. And the saddest part of the story is, that the children knew about this, they all knew. How would you feel knowing that your best friend is smarter than you are? It’s true, the IQ test showed us just that, and now we know it and everybody else knows it. How would those parents felt, knowing that their children were put in a separate class from those with a higher IQ?

We are not all logical- mathematical intelligent, and those teachers should have known that before giving those tests and separating the “GOOD” from the “BAD”, the “SMART” from the “NOT SO SMART.” This doesn’t only apply to those kids, and those IQ tests, but in general. If we treat people as being superior or inferior to us, we might help them become just that, so we should start paying closer attentions to our words and actions.

“ If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe