New City School

1. Problem solving.
2. Planning.
3. Organizing
4. Long-term memory.
5. Reasoning--including flexibility and quickness.
6. Attentiveness.
7. Concentration.
8. Abstract thinking.
9. Improvisation.

Mark Gordon is founder of Kinesthetic Academics (http://kinesthetic-academics.com) and switches between roles of teacher, coach, consultant and curriculum developer.
For the last 18 years, Mark has had one mission: how do kids, who learn differently, learn best.
A book, If Einstein Ran Our Schools (http://ifeinsteinranourschools,com), will be published this summer. And thanks to Mark for these two photos.

It is an empirical truth that we express our inner selves and explore our external world is different ways. Dare I say multiple ways? What causes us to hum aloud or in thought? Why do we sometimes doodle? What makes us want to dance? Why do some people climb mountains while others are more interested in understanding themselves and others? It all starts with a stimulus. It could be internal – a thought or feeling; or external – for example, something we see.

Regardless of the stimulus, the result is motivation to do something, or to understand something. And so, we delve into it, explore it, or simply said, we learn. This is a natural process and can easily be observed in others and ourselves. Learning via this natural process results in people learning in their own way. People, especially children, may not even think of it as learning because that’s something done in school.

The problem for me was that I went through a large portion of my life completely unaware of the concept of informal learning. It was during my time at Teachers College that I began to understand the theory of education. The concepts of formal and informal learning got my attention and made me recall childhood memories of helping my younger brother with his schoolwork. He was about nine years old and had trouble reading. I was twelve but everyone said I was smart for my age. As I look back on it now, the truth is that I was lucky that I could learn in the traditional formal way.

I tried everything I knew to help my brother read better such as memorization, repetitive blackboard work, and sounding out words. It didn’t work. I felt bad. I was frustrated and it showed. Although I thought I hid my feelings, my brother saw my emotion and began to avoid the blackboard sessions. I bribed him to continue by offering to show him how to play the guitar. I also enticed him with learning photography, which I had done with my chemistry set (making black and white prints in a rudimentary way).

I was amazed at how quickly he learned to read music. His success with the guitar encouraged both of us. We didn’t conceptualize it but the experience proved that he didn’t have an intelligence problem; he had a reading problem. He also excelled in photography. He taught himself to take, develop, and enlarge color negatives and prints. He became the photographer of the family.

Two revelations from my later studies gave me a foundation for a better understanding of these childhood events. First was the excitement I felt when I heard in class about the radical educators such as Paolo Freire and Myles Horton. How freeing it was to think about dispensing with the traditional teacher - student relationship and pursuing knowledge in an atmosphere of equality. The second and the most influential revelation for me was finding out about the concept of Multiple Intelligences.

When I found out about Howard Gardner and MI Theory, I became aware of what I had been unconsciously observing in my grandchildren. They were constantly demonstrating their own personal ways to express themselves. For example, one played piano, soccer, and loved to write stories. Another loved to draw and play baseball; two of them loved riddles, jokes, and dancing. I found them to be less inhibited than I was at their age and quite confident that they could learn to do anything they wanted. This is perhaps partly due to the evolution of our culture but I think mostly due to the advances of technology. Today, children use cell phones and computers. My youngest grandson (4 years old) has an I-PAD that he loves. He plays memory-matching games, picture-word games, and puzzles. The newest generation is empowered by rapidly changing technology that gives them greater freedom to follow their interests in a way that works for them.

Although Gardner’s work captured my attention, there was something missing. Then I read In Their Own Way by Thomas Armstrong and everything jelled. Gardner uncovered the existence of Multiple Intelligences and Armstrong showed us how to use them to learn. I knew what I wanted to do but I had doubts about my competency. I am an unlikely educator because my career did not focus on education. I started as an entry-level technician for the New York Telephone Company and retired as a Vice-president of Network Operations. Prior to my retirement, I completed a masters and a doctoral program at Teachers College, Columbia University. It was a great experience for me and it opened doors into the world of education. This calling to education occurred at the time that my company was downsizing. I had to reduce personnel in my organization and I no longer felt that my position was secure. So, I was searching for something new and exciting.

After my retirement, I started Innerchange Consultants Inc. and continued working in telecommunications. But I had a need to progress in education. I held a few classes for doctoral students at the request of my advisor but my real interest was in children. Due to retirement, I was able to spend more time with my grandchildren. I have no doubt that it was they who spurred me on to dig deeper into Multiple Intelligence theory.

I decided to focus on elementary education and I developed an outline for a children's storybook based on Multiple Intelligences without explicitly mentioning the theory. I later decided that the book could also serve to help parents understand that children learn in different ways. I decided to include suggestions in the text for additional exercises related to the story as a guide for expanding the learning experience. I started this project several years ago but stopped at the end of 2008 when my wife was diagnosed with cancer. After a two-year battle that completely consumed us, my wife passed on. It has been difficult for me to accept the loss of my wife but I am now actively engaged in continuing my book.

So, to sum up my thoughts, our children have the confidence and the means to pursue knowledge in their own way. They do it by themselves and with their friends but usually not in school. The freedom to use different ways to learn is not a common practice in traditional education. Out of the love that I have for the uniqueness of children, I hope to influence traditional elementary education by fostering the recognition that these intelligences can be developed to help our children reach their full potential.