On Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

I've mentioned in a few of the GRE conversations that I'm a good test taker. I've always found it generally easy to get good grades. I have book smarts and am able to figure out what teachers are looking for and give it to them. My parents are both teachers, after all, as are many in my extended family; I have uncles who have been department deans at universities and had books published, cousins pursuing PhDs. College is a natural for us. But just because we have school intelligence doesn't necessarily we have real world intelligence. Knowing things is a lot different than relating well with people and applying that knowledge. We don't do too bad, but we do seem to have a family trait of . . . airheadedness, if you will. We can be absent minded and not always take the most logical actions. A few examples follow, from the silly to deadly serious.

I remember one family gathering for the holidays. A cousin my age was just sitting down at the table when someone pointed out he'd missed a belt loop. He undid his belt and rethreaded it. Problem solved. Except when he went to stand up after eating he couldn't. He'd not only gotten all of his loops, but part of the chair as well, and was stuck until he could once again take his belt off.

My college roommates and I lived in an absolutely filthy dorm room. One Saturday I finally felt moved to clean, so I scrubbed that place from top to bottom. There wasn't a bit of dust left by the time I was done. Or so I thought, until I looked at the box fan and how brown its blades had become. Since I couldn't reach in there to wipe, I came up with the idea of spraying. The only water spray I had access to was the shower. Now I knew there was an electric motor involved, and if I'd thought it through I would have realized the only reaction upon plugging it back in and turning it on again would be a puff of smoke, but at the time all I was focused on was getting rid of the dust, and the shower seemed the most efficient way of cleaning it.

I won't mention who on this one, but I have a relative who had used duct tape to hold part of his older lawnmower together as it aged. One day when he was mowing he noticed the tape was coming loose, so without another thought he reached down to wrap it back up underneath. Same principal as with the shower, except his middle finger is now half an inch shorter.

So, anyway, Wednesday evening I drove my wife's 2006 Toyota Rav4 home from work and parked it in the driveway. I went inside and changed clothes, and within 15 minutes was loading the dogs into the truck to go for a run. I climbed in, adjusted the mirrors, found my place in my audio CD, and backed into the SUV I had parked a few minutes earlier.