How Many Brains Do You Have?

The theory of Multiple Intelligences has been around a long time - basically Dr. Howard Gardner says that there are lots of ways to be smart, not all of them centered on words and numbers, and that these different smartnesses feed each other.

Now, you can argue about whether this is valid or what have you, but I find it very helpful to think of these maybe not so much as intelligences, but modes or orientations. Moods. Different people are in different moods or see the world in different ways. And usually one or two of them tend to be dominant. This dominance can also change over time.

Drawing reveals all of these. Here's the list of intelligences and how they relate:

1. Body/Kinesthetic: Some kids have got to draw standing up. Others just enjoy moving the pencil around. No doubt drawing is movement.
2. Interpersonal: Drawing teaches you to make a part of yourself visible, and to respond to the visible selves of others.
3. Verbal/Linguistic: Drawing is storytelling, as is discussing your drawing.
4. Logical/Math: Drawing requires looking at the physics of the world around you - proportion, dimensions, relationships.
5. Naturalistic: Drawing makes us see our natural environment more clearly.
6. Intrapersonal: You can learn a great deal about what you are thinking by drawing it.
7. Visual/Spatial: Well, this one's pretty obvious. I hope.
8. Musical: Drawing has a rhythm to it, depending on what you are doing. Listen to a room of people drawing. They are making a form of music. Music also enhances drawing for a lot of people.

I think it is unhelpful to think of drawing or art as a subject. It is simply one of many ways to engage all those intelligences. When I teach I watch for the kid who draws standing up, the one who taps her foot in time, the one who wants to talk you through the process, the one who wants to draw mechanical things that could really work, the one who wants to use every color of crayon in order... and the many, many kids who want me to see what they've drawn and respond to it.