Intelligences

Mirror picture

More and more I am convinced every child has intelligences that we need to free up.

Edward was assigned to take five photos with a digital camera. One had to be a portrait, and he chose a self portrait.  I lent him my camera, and I set up a mirror that he could photograph.  The resulting photo, as it popped up on the back of the digital camera, was just a glare.

I was stymied; but Edward wasn’t, not even for five seconds. He reversed the camera so it pointed toward him.  He used the mirror to see the camera’s viewing window, and snapped the shutter.  He took a photo with minimal glare (above).

I would never have solved the problem, let alone solve it as quickly as he did. 

Edward is 16, and attends a good private high school.  His grades are not great.  He struggles with finding the right word, and he fails to understand idioms. (He thought “on pain of death” meant that you were painfully dying.)  His teachers criticize his written work.

But Edward’s peers seek him out when they need someone who listens thoughtfully and counsels carefully.  And as the photo story shows, he’s a problem solver. 

Someday our school system will value people like Edward.  If he could teach others what’s natural to him, we might have world peace.