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Marianela Nunez
Prof. Dean Johnson
IPWS- Fall 2009
September 28th, 2009

Everybody Is Intelligent!

When I was taking an English pedagogy course in the Dominican Republic, I was first

introduced to multiple intelligences and different learning styles. I was amazed with the

relationship between each learning style and methods that were applied at that institute. I

remember that first day of class. I was sitting in the classroom with my hands on the desk and

my head up looking at the professor. When he asked me: What type of learner are you and

which is your most developed intelligence? I was surprised, when I discovered that I am a visual

and verbal learner. This made me understand why it was so easy to understand a class where I

could see props related to the lesson.

According to Lisa Warner in her article, “Assessing learning to benefit learning, who

knew!?” there are eight characterized ways in which people learn. These ways to learn are called

learning styles. Some people learn and process information by listening (musical), writing or

reading (verbal) while other people learn throughout visual activity (visual), the interaction with

others (interpersonal) or with themselves ( intrapersonal) and by reasoning ( mathematical) or by

relating nature with their learning subjects (naturalistic). All these styles are somehow stronger in

certain types of individuals than in others. Understanding these learning styles is a huge

advantage for a learner willing to be an educated person. An educated person is someone who

can think, communicate, and interact well in society; in other words logical mathematical,

linguistic and interpersonal intelligences are in the list of characteristics of an educated person.

David Sabrio and Mitchell Burchfield mentioned in “Multiple Intelligences”, the

logical-mathematical and the linguistic intelligence are situated at the top of the mountain when
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we talk about intelligences. Another of the most important intelligences I embrace to define an

educated person is the interpersonal intelligence.

The logical mathematical intelligence according to Sabrio, is what best describes a person

who can think logically. This kind of intelligence is really necessary to perform daily life tasks.

Somebody without this intelligence is incomplete. There are so many things that need to be

figured out to obtain the desired results. A person who goes to the supermarket to buy enough

food for twenty people should not take just ten dollars with her. If somebody goes to a store with

a hundred bucks to buy clothes, gets ten items which value is a hundred dollars, and forgets

about the taxes applied to each item, that may not be a logical mathematical intelligent

individual.

The linguistic intelligence is related to people who can write, read and understand with

facility. This people are able to understand and analyze information easily which is very

important in this modern world. Being educated is pretty much the privilege to comprehend the

world that is around us. It is necessary to know the meaning of the things and the application of

these meanings to reality.

In a world where globalization is taking place every single day, and there are so many

cultures and different people, it is extremely necessary to have interpersonal intelligence.

Gardner defines the interpersonal intelligence as “The ability to understand other people. What

motivates them, how they work, how to work cooperatively with them.” An educated person

has the capacity to understand certain behaviors that can be difficult to recognize for somebody

without a good interpersonal intelligence. For instance, the reaction of a person with this kind of

intelligence, when there is somebody trying to fight because of a bad service in an x company

may result in a calm conversation always trying to make things understandable, instead of

starting a fight as well with the other person.

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Even though when I identified three types of intelligences, logical mathematical,

linguistic, and interpersonal, as the most necessaries to be an individual with a good education; I

believe that it is important to have one or two strongly developed, but we must also try to have a

little bit of each in order to reach the top of the ladder, and in effect to survive. People must be

able to apply each one to situations where they are required. Naturalistic intelligence is

extremely important if you want to survive in the wild, bodily kinesthetic and spatial intelligence

are very useful for practical things. This place called world would not be the same without

people whose musical intelligence has developed the most beautiful melodies and songs. All the

intelligences have the same degree of value. The level of professionalism that people reach in

their interest area plus the ability to understand the basics of other subjects in life are what

determine how educated we are.