Michael Smith writes: > > I think the burden of proof is on anyone who claims it is of > > pedagogical > > utility to know the past record of students, including records of their > > intelligence(s). Such information is more apt to mislead than to guide.
Doyle writes: > It is necessary to know if a child has a learning disability. This > carving of islands of intelligence does matter in terms of how someone > will be taught. yeah. My son -- who has Asperger Syndrome (mild autism) among other things -- has of course taken large numbers of psychological and abilities tests. (Hey, my checking account is empty again! ) The measures of his abilities are like the teeth on a comb. He's really good at some things and really poor at others. If we were to simply average all these measures -- which is the basic idea behind IQ -- then we wouldn't get much info at all about him. We wouldn't know where remediation was needed. Kids with AS are highly frustrating to teachers. They seem so "bright" but then are _really_ hard to teach. The idea of multiple intelligences (or islands of intelligence) helps understand what's going on. The same is true of kids with other learning disabilities. (I consider AS to be a learning disability, focusing on social skills.) -- Jim Devine / "The trick for radicals has been and will be to make of earth a heaven, but without blind faith." -- Mike Yates.
