Howard Gardner (b.1943) is an American developmental psychologist and author. He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, which postulates that individuals can develop a combination of eight or more autonomous intelligences.
Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Gardner is the son of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. A gifted pianist, his lifelong passion for music influenced his nonunitary conception of human cognitive capacity.
Gardner attended Harvard University and earned a bachelor’s degree in social relations and a doctoral degree in developmental psychology. He worked at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
First presented in Frames of Mind (1983) and subsequently refined and extended in Intelligence Reframed (1999,) Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences stimulated teachers, school leaders, and special educators to embrace the concept that there are many ways to be intelligent.
The author of more than twenty books and hundreds of journal articles, Gardner has also conducted studies in fields ranging from arts education to creativity to socially responsible work and ethics. His other popular books include Five Minds for the Future (2009,) Creating Minds (2011,) and The Unschooled Mind (2011.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Howard Gardner
In the course of heir careers in the American schools of today, most students take hundreds, if not thousands, of tests. They develop skill to a highly calibrated degree in an exercise that will essentially become useless immediately after their last day in school.
—Howard Gardner
Topics: War, Career, Exercise
Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding he sings.
—Howard Gardner
Topics: Music
It’s not what you take but what you leave behind that defines greatness.
—Howard Gardner
Topics: Greatness & Great Things, Greatness
If we would just support each other—that’s ninety percent of the problem.
—Howard Gardner
Topics: Problems, Cooperation, Help
Now intelligence seemed quantifiable. You could measure someone’s actual or potential height, and now, it seemed, you could also measure someone’s actual or potential intelligence. We had one dimension of mental ability along which we could array everyone… The whole concept has to be challenged; in fact, it has to be replaced.
—Howard Gardner
Topics: War, Intelligence, Potential, Act
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