Intelligence comes in many forms

This was the original attempt. It was drawn over a year ago.

This column began with a lazy effort attempting to draw a bird, leading to a year of my being poked fun.

I will be embarking on a journey to see if I can improve my artistic skills from extremely basic to at least average. I will be meeting with art teachers, practicing from books and doing whatever it takes to overcome my artistic challenges.

According to Howard Gardner’s Theory, there are nine different forms of intelligence: nature, musical, numbers, existential, people smart, body, word, self smart, and picture smart. In the coming month, I will attempt to improve my picture smart, also known as spatial intelligence.

Gardner also speaks about how every person has unique talents and that is what determines their intelligence. He also says that it is unfair to judge people on just two of the forms of intelligence, which is what most schools do. He also says that the IQ test is only focused on one or two of the intelligences so it needs change. We have all seen people who are artistically or musically talented, but struggle in school, so their is a definite basis for his claims.

It all began on a rainy mid-September afternoon in freshman English with Mr. Broer. We were asked to do an in-class project that involved drawing a Scarlet Ibis. Mine was, I admit, ghastly due to a lack of both effort and artistic ability.

I was determined to better myself, and thus this column was born. My goal is to see if I, one who is not necessarily “artistically intelligent”, can overcome my ineptitude to become a proficient artist.

I will attempt to improve my artistic ability through any means possible, even though I realize that I face an uphill battle.

No matter what, I can only go up from here.


2 responses to “Intelligence comes in many forms”

  1. […] on my last column, I will continue to explore my ability to develop my artistic intelligence as described by Howard […]

  2. Christine McGrath Avatar

    Delightful! As one of those unrecognized geniuses I really appreciate the information in your article.. and I certainly enjoyed the reading of it. I can also draw a bird pretty well, in case you were wondering!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.