Standardization - Is a Ballerina Less Intelligent Than a Biochemical Engineer?

Remember those several hours of your life that you spent sitting in the ACT, crunching through English questions, speed-reading passages, and plowing through graphs and numbers in hopes of getting a competitive score so that you could go to a good college, maybe get a scholarship, and pretty much be a successful person in life? The little number that the ACT produced as its measure of your intelligence meant a lot at the time, and probably still haunts you in your endeavors, for good or bad. At first glance, the ACT score would seem to be a very handy social yardstick for measuring you against others. But is it really a measure of your intelligence as compared to the intelligence of others?

In 1983, Howard Gardner developed a theory of multiple intelligences, in which he proposed that there were eight different areas of a person's development, and a person could have various levels of intelligent potential in each area.

1. Spatial - the ability to do well at things like puzzles

Here's a shockingly brief example of someone who displays a high level of spatial intelligence. I'm impressed - I can never even finish the last side!

2. Linguistic - good at reading, writing, telling stories and memorizing words and dates

This man shows a high level of linguistic ability. 3.1415926... yep, that's as far as I can go. And I can remember my own phone number, on lucky days.

3. Logical-mathematical - the ability to excel with logic, abstractions, reasoning and numbers

These men display highly advanced logical-mathematical intelligence. I won a game of chess... once.

4. Bodily-kinesthetic - the capacity to control one's bodily motions and handle objects skilfully

These performers demonstrate great ability in the bodily-kinesthetic area. And, on a side note, this is probably my favorite of the videos in this post. It is AMAZING!! Yeah, I could never keep up a hula hoop...

5. Musical - displaying sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones and music

This girl is INCREDIBLE! At the age of 6, she is already highly talented in the musical intelligence area!

6. Interpersonal - good at interacting with others

By posting this, I'm not saying I endorse Mitt Romney or agree with him on everything. I'm just pointing out that as a leader as good as anyone getting as far as he has would have to be, he shows a great development of interpersonal intelligence.

7. Intrapersonal - displaying introspective and self-reflective capacities

According to his wife's description, Elder Cook possesses great intrapersonal capabilities. They are such a cute couple! I want to be that way someday!

8. Naturalistic - the ability to be nurturing and relate information to natural surroundings

The gardener of these topiary shrubs is very talented in naturalistic intelligence! Plus, this video has gorgeous music, so it was a must...

If you think about it, the ACT, while a wide-spread and generally accepted tool for measuring people against each other, is geared entirely toward those gifted with linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence. As far as the ACT goes, you may be killer at checkers, basketball, saxophone, flirting, comforting others, or growing roses from twigs, but if you can't solve an equation or read with speed, you're toast. While I'm not sure what to suggest in place of standardized tests, because they certainly have their uses, it seems clear to me that with standardization that reflects certain values and not others, some people, who have intelligence in other areas, will be missed.