The story goes on…
(give a look at the dwarfs' village by night)
The king took up his courage and entered the gate which divided the dwarfs’ village from the rest of the world “After all I’m not here to be a nuisance to the dwarfs but only to understand my daughter’s psychology in order to get her to enter the Royal school in spite of her low admission test score, so I have nothing to be afraid of”. He kept saying to himself while walking down the main street which was lined on both sides by cosy little shops. He was soon attracted by the first shop sign which read “Numby the dwarf – a specialist in astronomic calculations and differential equations. Do you want to reckon how many buttons you have worn in your life? How many stairs you have got up? How many cups of coffee you have drunk? Numby will tell you!”
“How should I care about all those numbers?” said the king aloud. It was then that a stout man wearing a policeman uniform blocked him “So you are one of those pissing citizens who come here to annoy the dwarfs… You are arrested!!”
The king: “I can’t be arrested: I am THE KING OF THIS KINGDOM!!”The policeman looked shocked: “If you are a king I’d better apologize; my name is Howard Gardner, known by my friends as How-Guard and I’m the police constable of the village … but, if you are truly the king, you should have known that in this village there live some dwarfs who have a peculiarity: each one has got a different type of intelligence!”
The king looked puzzled and the policeman, who had become much more polite, explained that each dwarf was a living example of one intelligence, while generally normal people have, inside their minds, a mixture of all existing types. As it happens with chocolate cake recipes, one has more chocolate, the other more butter or sugar but generally each ingredient is present in any cake even if in different quantities. The same happens with human intelligences. On the contrary the dwarfs, with their unilateral intelligences, were a real rarity and for that reason the village hosted and cherished them.
How many are they?” the king started to show interest in the matter. “Well, they had been seven for a long time but recently a new dwarf has moved to the village. But let’s go and I will show you around. The dwarf you’ve just met is an example of Logical Mathematical Intelligence. He sees the world through numbers. Strange, isn’t it?” “Yes, really!” Gardner went on explaining: “Here you can admire Talkie the Dwarf’s library: he is fond of words and is always speaking when he’s is not perusing a book. And he can speak 79 languages including Bantu, Hindu and English as it is pronounced by people from Norwich!!! In fact his intelligence is called Linguistic. But don’t ask him how much 3 X 2 is because he will stare at you and feel stupid and lost… “
The king: “Is that a dance school?” “Yes, this is Barishniko-the-Dwarf’s Dance Academy: he expresses his thoughts and emotions though his body; in fact his intelligence is called Bodily kinesthetic; so he’s always dancing and, if it weren’t for our village, he would have ended on a stage wearing water-proof make up and faux cils… you know what I mean?” The policeman winked but the king was politically correct and pretended not to notice the inappropriate allusion.
“Is that an artist atelier?” the king asked again “Yes, sure! This is Vangoggy-theDwarf’s studio. He can’t read or write but he can use his artist tools as if they were magic wands… absolutely astonishing!” The men entered the workshop where the dwarf was busy dipping three lively and noisy chickens in buckets of green, red and yellow paint. They looked in silent awe at the artist accomplishing his work while the chickens, to be honest, didn’t seem to enjoy being protagonists of the performance… when their legs were ink-soaked he let them walk on a snow-white canvas on the floor.
It was one of those unique exciting moments when you know you are witnessing the birth of a new masterpiece!
The two men left the studio in silence meditating on the exceptionality of the event they had just assisted to while the chickens were still yelling. “Is he always busy creating such beautiful works of art?” the king asked later “Oh, not always! The dwarf has got a Spatial Visual Intelligence so, when he’s not painting, he’s somewhere else exploring new places and testing himself to see if he can found his way around. In fact he is a genius at orienteering!”
A beautiful melody came from the next shop “This is Beetie-the-Dwarf’s music chamber” Said Gardner “He started to play the piano before he could walk and to read music texts before he was able to say “Mummy!” In fact at fifteen months he directed the Salisbury Philharmonic Orchestra from his push-cart!” The king was more and more impressed…
Then there were two shops facing each other. They were very strange indeed: one had all the windows opened wide and you could see crowds of people going in and out all the time while many more people were still inside and you heard them laughing and chatting. The shop on the opposite side, on the contrary, had the main door locked up with a huge chain and all the windows closed. A big board was hanging from the chain and it had these words written in box letters: “Be quiet people: I’m thinking aloud!” The subtitle explained in more details they'd better go elsewhere as the Lonely Dwarf didn’t like to be bothered.
Never seen two neighbours who are more different from each other! How can they manage to get along?” Asked the king “On the contrary they are very close friends; you see: their intelligences are complementary. Jack the Dwarf has an Interpersonal Intelligence so he likes to meet people while Lonely Dwarf has got an Intrapersonal Intelligence and he prefers to be in his own company. When the first needs a bit of introspection he goes to the second for advice and vice versa, when the second is sick of being on his own, he knocks at his neighbour’s door, but I admit it happens very seldom...”
The king nodded: “All this is very interesting but I haven’t solved my daughter’s problem yet. What kind of intelligence has she got if she scores so low at I.Q. tests but the witch keeps saying she is smart?”
Gardner put his hand on his shoulder: “My friend… “ The king frowned “Sorry, I mean: my king!” and he drew back his hand “I think I have found the solution to your worries. Let’s go to the forest where we’ll meet the last Dwarf!” They set out and finally arrived at a clearing hidden in the depth of the wood.
This time the king was really amazed. The Dwarf, whom the constable called Faun the Dwarf, had assembled twelve PC work stations and placed them in rows and at each desk there was an animal sitting. The Dwarf was looking very authoritative and expert and shouted at all the animals who seemed to respect him not only because of his loud voice but mostly for his competence.
“FLUFFY! How many times shall I repeat that even if the object you’re holding is called a mouse that does not mean you must treat it as if it were your worst enemy!” By now you should have realized that Fluffy was the name of a very fat hairy grey Persian cat “Be gentle when you double click or you’ll break it… HONKIE DONKIE!!!” This one was a very muscular long-eared donkey “don’t you believe I haven’t seen you playing video-games instead of completing the Access database exercise I assigned you a week ago” The dwarf turned to us “He’s a complete ass… He wants to learn computer science but is not skilled for that… YOU PINKIE!!! Stop searching the Internet for porn Web sites! This is the last time I warn you… next time I find you on the Sexy Piggy Web Shop Dot Com you’ll be expelled for ever from this school!”
Now the king looked relieved and happy at last. Gardner was a bit upset “What’s the matter, my king? Are you afraid the Dwarf is not a perfect example of modern “tutor facilitator friendly teacher”? You see, maybe he’s a bit old-fashioned as regards didactics but he is a very rare specimen of Naturalistic Intelligence…”
The king: “Oh no Friend! You needn’t worry: I feel very happy because I’ve understood my daughter’s learning-style at last! Her mother has been sleeping all the pregnancy months with a book on animals on her lap and somehow, with the help of the witch’s sorcery, this knowledge has been transfused to the baby. She is truly a lovely girl and I won’t let any stupid school regulations ruin her. Tomorrow I will send her to Prof. Faun the Dwarf and she will be very happy to attend his classes with such nice guys as school-friends!!”
Dear Villagers, isn’t this an amazing and amusing tale? Only a witch (that is myself) and a VERY SPECIAL ONE ;-)) could narrate such a story… Now whatever your pupils’ intelligencies are, whether of a pure type or a mixture of all seven plus one, take care of them and respect them because each child has got special treasures hidden inside themselves.
And don’t be too strict when grading!!!
