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HOWARD Gardner conceived the idea that all human beings have "multiple intelligences"-at least eight different kinds. Thanks to his insights, today's educators teach-and assess-in ways that tap students' musical, spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, linguistic, and logical abilities. Now he joins teachers nationwide who are fed up with being asked to stuff students with facts to spit back, and who are frustrated with the public's focus on standardized tests.
In The Disciplined Mind, you say today's debate about education focuses too much on vouchers, charter schools, and the like. What should we be talking about?
We need to think and talk about what the role of schools should be in educating children. I don't believe a K-12 curriculum that focuses on a large number of specified topics and concepts during each year of school truly educates kids. The purpose of education is to help us understand our various worlds-the physical, biological, social, and personal. We get this understanding by delving deeply into topics, not by memorizing 50 or 500 terms and concepts each year.
Why do you criticize the fact-based, standardized-test approach to K12 education?
Facts are just bits and pieces of knowledge. They acquire meaning only when combined into significant patterns. Facts alone are like Christmas tree ornaments without a tree. Standardized tests that look at how many facts students know, as opposed to what they understand, force teachers to present these unconnected bits. Then, learning becomes about choosing the correct answer on a multiple-choice test. Instead, I think students should...