Multiple Intelligences

After reading Creators: Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner, I can say that I am in a state of awe and also overwhelmed. Gardner had done a study on seven people trying to find out how and where creativity is found. He came up with a pyramid containing three different aspects that he claims all work together and make one creative. The first section was individuals. It was made up of them themselves and the brains that they were born with. The second section was called the domain and it was the type/area of work individuals were in. And last was the field which consisted of judges and institutions that identified which individuals were outstanding. Albert Einstein, Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, TS Eliot, Martha Graham, Mahatma Gandhi and Sigmund Freud were all creative geniuses that went above and beyond their field of work that Gardner had decided to study. All of these individuals were very different yet similar in many ways. They were middle class, born with creative talents, knew how to work hard, had a strong work ethic and were all born around the same time. Also, they all made leaps and bounds for their area of work. They all took the domains that they were in, mastered it and then changed it. The difference was that they all came from different areas of intelligence whether it be linguistic, musical, mathematical, bodily etc.

I was most impressed by Picasso’s way of creativity. From the start he was a prodigy, being taught by his father who was also a painter. When Picasso was young, he had surpassed the skills of his father. He went on in the art world to create things such as cubism and new pieces of art. His piece of artwork Les Demoiselles D’Avignon was hidden from people at first due to the large negative response from others in the field and he waited for the perfect time to bring it out so that it could be accepted. “He felt it was important to revolutionize and take risks the field saw by creating acceptable new images”.

I agree with many things Gardner is saying. Although, I think everyone has creativity and it is something you are born with. But it is those who can take it and the knowledge and talents they have and combine it with hard work to come out with an extraordinary piece no one has ever seen or thought of before. This is where the revolutionary change occurs.  Like the reading says, “one simply cannot determine whether an individual is creative”. I believe that if creative individual wants to make a change in their field and alter the way people look at it, first they must be dedicated and passionate. They must also have the talent to complement those desires and the wish to go above and beyond everybody else around them. I agree with the part that individuals are judged by the people in their field. It is those that they must prove themselves to and show promise because they determine if they have outstanding talent or just an average amount. All of the people Gardner had studied were influential to those around them and future generations and they all had a breakthrough to get to this point. It frustrates me that all of the people studied but one were men because if girls were allowed the chance to be intellectual, so many more creative breakthroughs could have occurred and now we never know because women weren’t given the chance to try to overcome. Yes, these individuals were the most creative in their field but it doesn’t mean they are the only ones who are creative, creativity lies within everybody but most of the time individuals don’t know what to do with it, don’t have the passion to use it toward their goals or know how to use it to make their dreams a reality.