Thursday, January 19, 2017

Successful Intelligence

While I think academic excellence has its place and I expect it from my children too, simply because no one rises to low expectations, there is another equally important area that I work hard not to lose sight of. 

Every now and again, I would assess my children's progress in the development of their 'successful intelligence'.  I wrote about this important aspect 6 years ago in this blog post about Beyond SAT and GPAs

Acquisition of knowledge and content is necessary to excel in school and to understand a topic, but it is important only up to an extent.

Equally important, if not more, is the acquisition of skills. It is easier said than done as I still think that our education system and culture do not provide sufficient opportunities to equip students with skills necessary to answer the following types of questions.

 A "creative" question might ask students to draw something, such as a design for a new product; to post a video on YouTube; or to imagine an alternate history (what if the Nazis had won World War II?). 

An analytical question, meanwhile, might ask a student what his favorite book is and why. 

A practical question might ask a student how he convinced a friend of an idea. 

A wisdom-oriented question might ask him how a high school passion might be turned toward the common good later in life.

My interest in my kids' development in these areas has nothing to do with obtaining admission to selected universities, but everything to do with what I think education goals should be all about.





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