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Parent Circle is published by Nalina Ramalakshmi, Director, Shri Harini Media Pvt. Ltd. All editorial material including editorial comments, opinions and statement of facts appearing in this publication, represent the views of its respective authors and does not necessarily carry the endorsement of the publishers. Information carried in Parent Circle is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but the accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed. The publication of any advertisements or listings is not to be construed as an endorsement of the product or service offered.

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For the Parent in youTo know, to understand, to connect

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editorial

Recently, a father was telling me about his young son who is not showing an interest in his studies, but is very interested in airplanes and flight schedules. He knows the flight

numbers and schedules of different airlines around the world. He wants to become a pilot!

This led me back to the session I recently attended in Chennai with Dr Howard Gardner, the father of Multiple Intelligences. According to Dr Gardner, what we term as ‘intelligence’ is purely dependent on what we value as a society. Today our societies value technology. Hence language, science and math skills are highly valued and a person skillful in these areas is termed ‘intelligent’. If a society sees music as the way of the future then a musically talented person would be called ‘intelligent’. We are all endowed with a different set of multiple intelligences and no two people, not even identical twins, will have the same intelligences. Our cover story ‘Wake up! Your child is intelligent’ details this whole subject of Multiple Intelligences. Understanding this will help us in identifying and supporting the special talents of our children, thus helping build their self-esteem.

Getting involved in outdoor activities is another way to develop different ‘intelligences’. Our special story, ‘Pushing Boundaries’ guides you through the various activities accessible to our children.

Today we are bombarded with news about the violent actions taken by children. Who or what is to blame? Often these children have other deep issues and their actions are the culmination of what we call ‘the last straw’. These are children who need our support. Parents, teachers and friends see different sides of the child. We need to come together, partnering and communicating with each other in the interests of these children. Read the viewpoints given by a parent, teacher and a psychologist regarding this matter.

Finally to be successful in all our endeavours, we need to reach out and touch the Universal Energy we call God, in the form of prayer as explained in the article ‘The significance of prayer’.

It takes a village to raise a child, let us come together as a village in the interests of our children.

Nalina Ramalakshmi

Parent Circle / March 20122

RESOURCES

FORUM

IN FOCUS

MINDSET Is your child talking? Be all ears

LEARNING Everyday experiments!

LEARNING Memory tricks to study smart SPOTLIGHT Learning the Montessori way!

HEALTH CIRCLE Cold calls again

TEEN CIRCLE Better sleep! TECH TALK The ghost that stalks cyberspace

VALUES The significance of prayer

REGULARS

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8

21

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On the cOver nIYA zAIrA SOhrAB PhOtOgrAPh BY Arjun DOgrA

YOUR WORD

DISCUSSION POINT Right age for Facebook

VIEWPOINT Teen trouble: Enough excuses, take responsibility

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NUTRITION Gooseberry

PARENT CHEF High energy breakfasts

CHECK IT OUT Good reads for all ages KALEIDOSCOPE

contents

cOver StOrY

SPecIAl

Pushing Boundaries

P12

P26

Wake up! Your child is intelligent

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FOR

CHILDREN

Parent Circle / March 20124

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I liked all the articles in your February issue. A special mention must be made of “Who is God?” in the Values section. It was interesting to learn how Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma with their spouses manage earth’s resources in typical project management style! I plan to quote this to my grandchildren. This article can make children appreciate their world better.

The layout, articles and the write-ups were interesting and informative. Do continue the good work and I hope to be a subscriber to this wonderful magazine for many years to come. PURNIMA JAGANNATHAN, Chennai

I'm a mother of two and though my children are very young, I could relate to the article, 'Puncturing Exam Stress'. Exams are responsible for high stress levels in countless homes across India. Children relate to exams in the current environment in ways different from the manner in which we reacted to exams in the 80s and 90s. However, parents don’t realise this and end up putting children, even tiny-tots, under stress during exam time! I hope the article proves to be an eye-opener for parents. The pointers on supporting children like allowing snacking and avoiding post-mortem were of great help. R RAMAPRIYA, Chennai

I loved the recipes in your February issue. We bought an oven recently and I was looking out for new dishes. I tried out your recipes and it was a real treat to my family. In ‘Romancing Your Spouse’, the points you have given to keep the romance alive even years after marriage must be printed on all marriage invitations so that newly-weds keep them in mind. I found the articles on volunteering and financial security for children very informative. Keep up the good work! PRIYA KISHORE, Chennai

Wake-up!

Your child is

KNOWING YOUR CHILD’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

BY RANGASHREE SRINIVAS

Your seven-year-old daughter’s teachers at school are complaining about her. The child has some difficulty following the lessons taught; her classwork is often incomplete. But she draws

beautiful diagrams; her project work is imaginative. At home, you know that she likes science. She brings you an illustrated encyclopaedia with pictures of fiery volcanoes, surging seas and interesting pot-bellied ants and asks you to read aloud to her. She cannot bear to see a mosquito squashed. She cannot tolerate the fact that dirty water is going untreated into the sea.

You feel that she has an intelligence innate in her that makes her appreciate the world outside. What is this intelligence and is it enough for her to get by in academics? How should this intelligence be tapped? Are schools (and parents too) progressive enough to treat each child as a unique individual, and adapt

themselves accordingly to satisfy her needs?

It is therefore important that both you as a parent and her teachers

understand the multiple

intelligences (MI) present in every child,

learn to identify the dominant ones and tap

them appropriately. Howard Gardner, the father of the Multiple Intelligence theory, visited India recently renewing an interest in MI and how it

An intelligence is the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued within one or more cultural settings.HowArd GArdner, FrAmes oF mind (1983)

coverstory

www.parentcircle.in 13

The MI theory suggests that an individual possesses intelligences in several areas as against the traditional idea of a single intelligence. An intelligent person has been recognized so far only by her linguistic (language) abilities or logical (mathematical) abilities as these are considered to be important for academic advancement. Thus, only the student who achieves high scores in class is considered intelligent. Another child may just be ‘talented’ in the area of her achievement – ‘She is a good dancer; let us send her for the inter-school dance competition.’ ‘He is a good cricket player; but he needs to concentrate now on improving his grades’ and so on.

Worse still, in some schools only the academically well-performing students are given the opportunity to participate in co-curricular activities when there could be others more suited for this. For instance, it is the class topper who gets to deliver the school’s morning assembly speech. It is the girl who scores a 100% in math who gets to automatically represent her school in the inter-school quiz competition.

In contrast, the MI theory recognizes at least eight different intelligences that have to be considered while creating an ‘intelligence’ profile of a person.

MI theory strives to provide educators and parents with a tool to recognize and nurture the different abilities of the child. It redefines the word ‘intelligent’ or ‘smart’. It brings in new thinking towards nurturing excellence, creativity and genius. It emphasises that all children can learn and that it is the adults who need to know how to teach them.

THE 8 INTELLIGENCES IN THE MI FRAMEWORK Chitra Ravi (Founder and CEO, EZ Vidya), who has worked under Gardner on Project Zero at Harvard University, gives some pointers to parents to spot intelligences in their children.

1.Linguistic intelligence is the capacity to use languages, to express oneself, and to understand other people. Poets specialise in linguistic intelligence. But any kind of writer, orator, speaker, lawyer, or a person for whom language is an important 8

will impact the world in the years to come. In the 30 years since he first propounded the theory of MI, further research has been done, not just by him, but by several other scholars and practitioners around the world.

WHAT IS MI? Gardner developed this theory based on his observations of hundreds of people from different walks of life, under everyday circumstances. His study also included stroke victims, prodigies, autistic individuals, and the so-called ‘idiot savants’. According to Gardner,

All human beings possess all eight intelligences in varying amounts, with some, more dominant than others. Each person has a different intellectual composition. We can improve education by addressing the multiple intelligences of our students. These intelligences are located in different areas of the brain and can either work independently or together. These intelligences may define the human species.

Word Smart

Number Smart

outdoors!let’s get

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” M A R K T W A I N

Parent Circle / March 201226

pushing

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” MARK TWAIN

boundaries BY SHASHWATHI SANDEEP

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