Teaching our Kids

I was reading a book the other day... and it related the story of a young girl in the 1930s who was very fidgety in class. She was a bright girl, but the teachers despaired that she would ever amount to anything, as she had trouble concentrating and focussing. They suggested that her mother put her in a "special needs" school. The mother was a little concerned and took the girl to a psychologist. They chatted for a bit while the little girl sat on the couch and tried not to fidget. Finally the psychologist told the girl that he and her mother were leaving the room to talk. As he left, he turned up the radio a bit. Outside the room, the psychologist and mother watched throug a one-way window as the girl started to dance around the room. The psychologist turned to the mother and told her that her daughter didn't have any problems, she was just a dancer at heart, and to put her in a dance school. So that's what happened... and the girl found herself amongst kids just like herself... They learned the same things as regular kids, but in the context of a dance school. She grew up to become a choreographer with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Nowadays, she would have been diagnosed with ADHD and put on Ritalin!

We all learn in different ways... in fact they speak of 7 intelligences:

1. Linguistic: Children with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles.

2. Logical-Mathematical: Children with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories and relationships. They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments.
3. Bodily-Kinesthetic: These kids process knowledge through bodily sensations. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking.
4. Spatial: These children think in images and pictures. They may be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing, building with Leggos or daydreaming.
5. Musical: Musical children are always singing or drumming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss. These kids are often discriminating listeners.
6. Interpersonal: Children who are leaders among their peers, who are good at communicating and who seem to understand others' feelings and motives possess interpersonal intelligence.
7. Intrapersonal: These children may be shy. They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated.

While we all have aspects of all of these intelligences, we usually have one or two stronger ones. I'm a strong visual learner for example... I do best when I can see things... So, now, the big question... Why do schools today try to shoe-horn kids into just one of these? Boys in particular are much more into Bodily-Kinesthetic learning than girls...

This was all triggered by hearing about a remake of the Black-Eyed Peas song "I gotta feeling" that was done by a bunch of school kids (1600 to be exact)... all to promote reading... Check out the original music video done for Oprah and then check out the kids doing their remake...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G02fRe98y-w  (Oprah Show version)

http://www.schooltube.com/video/e9bd79d29b4d0e6a2345/Gotta-Keep-Reading--Ocoee-Middle-School

The kids were cool to do this... it incorporates music, reading, dance all together... How much better would our kids learned if we taught math through cooking class... taught history through drama class...