Multiple Intelligences

8 Kinds of Smart at The Capitol School

We ask "How is your child smart?" instead of "Is your child smart?"

Based on the work of Dr. Howard Gardner, Harvard University: Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, 1983, Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice, 1993, and Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, 1999.

Our faculty tries to identify a child's strengths as well as weaknesses. We can all become more intelligent in an area if we have opportunities for learning and growth. It is our goal to move away from whole-group instruction toward small-group and individualized instruction. Over the past 16 years, we have not found grade-level to be a useful method of organizing student groups so we developed multi-age "clusters" of students with an age range of 3-4 years. However, we do use Alabama's grade-level objectives for reporting to parents and other schools.

Dr. Gardner visits teachers from The Capitol School

Dr. Gardner visits teachers from The Capitol School

Dr. Gardner commented: All humans have a range of intelligences: we differ only in how easily and how swiftly particular intelligences develop. "