When we talk about "school", we do not only mean OUR school, but the educational process in general and how it is approached by all those who are involved in it: the state, the teachers, the parents, the kids and the society.
Ken Robinson is a famous British author and speaker, and has been a University professor of Art in Education. He has also served in higher administrative positions and as a counselor in Universities and sectors concerning Education and research... He has also been awarded the honourable title of "Sir" from the Queen of England herself!
But all of the above are of not much interest to us... The reason why we admire him is that he is a tireless "worker" of education, a real visionary, who dreams and talks of a school that will be provising equal opportunities to everyone, a school that will be able to spot the strengths and talents of every child and develop them, without focusing or stopping on the weaknesses of each one of them. A school that will recognise the so-called "multiple intellegences".
But what does this mean? Intelligence is not only our ability to learn and recall information, or our capacity to solve mathematical problems! There are 8 (!) different forms of intelligence recognised today:
the linguistic intelligence (that is, the ability to handle the language with ease and effectiveness), the logical-mathematical intelligence (having a talent for Maths and solving logic problem), the musical intelligence, the visual-spatial intelligence (how well someone can "calculate" the space where they are, move around it and modulate it) , the bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence (athletes and dancers, for example have a very high bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence) the naturalist intelligence (being sensitive to ecology and the environment, feeling in balance with nature, etc.) the interpersonal intelligence (the ability toy understand other people's feelings, even if we are not explicitly informed about them) and the intrapersonal intelligence (being self-aware and being able to influence other people). The two last forms (the interpersonal and the intrapersonal intelligences) are are included in the wider sense of "emotional intelligence".
It is practically impossible, therefore, for someone NOT to belong to one of the above categories.
It is worth watching the following lecture (even though it's quite long) to see how, although times are hard and potentialities restricted, there are still people who believe that we CAN change education...
