multiple intelligences

Photo of an old building in Athens by Blair D. Fraser.

Some things I learned at a conference this weekend, seen through the prism of other events that happened coincident to it:

1. Roughly between the ages of 10 and 16, children go through what has been identified as the Romantic Period, whose salient characteristic is the overwhelming feeling of being overwhelmed by one’s own feelings. Kids at this age become fascinated by extremes wholly unrelated to their own lives and become consumed with threatening questions about death and destiny; they are drawn to secrecy, tempted to lie, insecure about their own potential, attracted to heroes who seem to have the qualities it takes to survive in a threatening world, desperate to love and be loved even as they know that whatever they do, someone would be disappointed if only he knew. Some people never progress past this period.

2. In one study, only 54% of Greeks found Greek-accented English acceptable, whereas 100% of the British listeners found the same samples appropriate. On the other side of the coin, only 15% of the British participants in the study found a Liverpool accent acceptable, whereas 100% of the Greeks did. The results clearly have to do with social perception and our harshness toward our own culture first.

3. “Learners learn better if they feel better.” Well, I was at that place to learn, and here’s what happened to me: first (morning) I felt good, then (about lunch time) I felt bad, then (nightfall) I felt Really Good, then (after dark) I felt Really Bad, and finally (next day) I felt fine, unsettled and confused, but all in all, moderately good. I hope this experience has put me in a good learning environment. Because someone (has) shifted my paradigm.