This paper gives a comprehensive overview of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. 

Gardner’s work is near and dear to my heart. His was among the first validation I encountered as a young adult proclaiming that there were many ways to be “smart.” By identifying these other ways to be “intelligent” he began to wrestle the word from the narrow confines of the culturally biased measurements and conceptual narrowness of the original use of the word “intelligence.” This is a profoundly important reclaiming of the word for all of those brilliant beings who shine in ways that not only were never rewarded in school, but conversely, were deemed failures or substandard. I know personally that the structures of the Western school systems don’t work for everyone and have cost untold numbers of people the chance to develop their natural gifts as well as burdened them with beliefs that they are not smart.

For my work, Gardner’s identification of the variety of types of intelligence blends beautifully with how I approach understanding the Highly Sensitive Individual. Happily our society continues to broaden our understanding of, and celebrate, the many ways an individual’s brain may excel, while not fitting within the bell curve metrics historically defining Western understanding of “intelligence.” For me Gardner’s work was the jump off point for identifying my own and my clients’ individual gifts and sensitivities.

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