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HOW TRULY INTELLIGENT ARE YOUR KIDS? DISCOVER IT!
As a young lad, I loved playing soccer. In those days, there were no computers, let alone computer games. Recreation for kids did not offer too many options, nor was it as sophisticated and diverse as it is today. Hence, many of us boys growing up played a lot of football. I was a damn good footballer; I played in the midfield with dribbling skills. Same with my siblings. I really don’t know where we picked it from as our dad hated football like a plague. It was, for him, the height of unseriousness. We dared not be seen playing football. He barred us from it, but we defiantly played it all the same. And we got punished for it. All we must do was read, read, and read. Growing up in those days, this was predominant among parents of my parents’ generation. Their emphasis on education was centred on classroom study only.
According to psychologists, there are three main domains of learning: the cognitive (mental skill), the affective (emotional/feelings), and the psychomotor (physical skills). In many climes, emphasis seems to be laid mostly, if not only, on the cognitive. It is a major flaw in the educational curricula in many jurisdictions globally – curricula that teach children what to think and not how to think. They overcrowd their cognitive department with loads of information and stifle their creative part. They have robbed and still do, many children of their potentials in life. Says Albert Einstein, “education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think”.
According to the theory of multiple intelligences, the human intelligence is not dominated by a single type of aptitude but rather consists of multiple abilities. A discourse on the various types of intelligences is outside the purview of this article, but suffice to say that there are various, diverse types. The dominant assessment of intelligence is through the IQ (intelligence quotient) test. But this test is flawed because it eliminates the place of creativity, morals, emotions, physical abilities, etc.
As a parent, it is your responsibility to help your children discover how truly intelligent they are. Education is not a one-way traffic. That a child is only gifted to play soccer does not make him less intelligent than the other child who is a prodigy in mathematics. Let’s provide for them an education that not just teaches, but trains; one that not only drills them to work but makes them in life.