red smarties are my favourite

i visited my old academic stomping ground today. thirteen kids and i made the trek up north to check in with my alma mater. and sitting in on a first-year legal procedure class, i was reminded of some of the same insecurities i faced on my first day of law school twenty years earlier. the most pronounced among them being the feelings of intellectual inferiority. everyone just sounds so damn bright in law school. but then i was reminded of a psychological theory introduced to me for the first time at around the same time i began law school. i'm referring to howard gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. a theory that has become so meaningful to me that it has ultimately come to form the philosophical basis of my present career. ask the kids what i talk about in the first week of accounting class. or business class. or law class. it sure as hell isn't accounting or business or law. instead i show them gardner's list of alternative intelligences. the reason? because i was raised in an era where those who performed poorly in math or science were made to feel inferior... to feel stupid. in fact, in my day, anyone who performed poorly in middle school or beyond was made to feel intellectually inadequate. as if performing well on a math test or a science lab should represent the litmus test for true intelligence. hey, i've done pretty well on those types of assignments throughout my academic career. so what does that say about me? it says that i studied for the damn test. but it sure as heck doesn't qualify me as a genius. and so what can we make of that middle-aged man sitting in front of me at osgoode today who seemed to know the answers to all the questions. what do we know about him now? well, he obviously read the case materials the evening before. and he certainly appeared to have a strong grasp of the english language. but could he play a simple three-chord progression on an acoustic guitar? maybe. could he accurately sketch a waterfall appearing at the break of dawn? maybe. could he ever hope to make contact with a 70 mph curve ball? maybe. could he come to terms with his own motivation to attend law school? maybe. could he communicate effectively with the members of his legal procedure study group? maybe. or maybe not.

"continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential." - winston churchill

the kids are alright: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG_uDDEnzC4