EDUCATING FOR LIFE

Angela Benjumea 
apbenjumea@hotmail.com
Publicado en Capital Letter No. 5
Mayo de 2004

"The main hope of a nation is based on the appropriate education of its youth"

F.RASMUS

Why is it that the students with the highest IQ are usually not the ones who have success in life? Why is it that some people who have all correct the circumstances to be happy (e.g. beauty, talent, money, etc.) get involved in serious problems such as drug addiction, depression and anorexia? Why are shootings becoming more frequent in North American schools?


Harvard Psychologist Howard Gardner, in his book "Frames of Mind" and Thomas Annstrongin his book "Multiple Intelligences, in the classroom", mentioned eight intelligences: linguistic, logic-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, intrapersonal and interpersonal. This article is especially focused on the latter.

As Dr. Gardner says our schools and cultures focus most of their attention on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence (in most people located in the left hemisphere of the brain); however, we should also place equal attention on the personal intelligences (related to the right hemisphere and limbic system). These involve leadership, the ability to create and maintain social relationships, the ability to solve conflicts and recognize our own anddther's moods, self esteem, self discipline and self control. We 'teachers' usually wonder why our students are bored during half of the classes and anxious during the other half. Our main concern is what to teach and how to teach it, but we forget that our students don't need just knowledge but also the emotional and social skills which allow them to face real life, with all its obstacles and difficulties, from different scopes.


There are several ways in which we can achieve that. To get started, practice self awareness and manage your emotions (such as sadness, anger and preoccupation). Remember you are your students' model. This doesn't mean however, to avoid them; each feeling and emotion has its own particular value and meaning. It is also important to know our students' emotions. If they don't have their emotional life in order, they can not concentrate and be motivated in the class and therefore, this affects their results. Teachers should help students to analyse and manage their emotions as well as to set objectives and a personal mission plan.


Finally, I would like to encourage teachers to have a variety of activities in class such as social activities and team projects in which students can apply their personal intelligences and in this way become less violent, more sociable and better leaders; in short, to become better human beings.


Goleman, D. La Inteligeneia Emotioned. Buenos Aires: Javier VeigBia Editor. 1996
Armstrong, T Multiple Intelligences in the classroom. Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1994