Thomas Armstrong (1)Critiques

Overall, this is pretty thin gruel. However, in his final chapter, "Anticipating Future Challenges," the author's critically insightful remarks about the pitfalls mindfulness practice faces in the essentially mindless environment of schools in the United States goes some distance toward redeeming this otherwise banal, tedious book.

This is a well meaning book about an important topic that makes a case for inclusivity, positivity and adaptability towards people with outlier brain structure/mental processes. It is therefore very unfortunate that it is marred by poor and uncritical thinking about the scientific evidence in relation to the causes of these variations. Two major issues that crop up a lot in various contexts are reliance on "evolutionary psychology" and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in psychological studies. I've done it before, but it's worth taking the time again to explain why YOU should be extremely sceptical of any conclusions based solely on these approaches.

Evolutionary Psychology, first. This used to be called socio-biology but it had to change its name because the field became so thoroughly and frequently derided by the rest of the scientific community. Of course, it should actually have just been abandoned, but too many people were making a living out of it and weren't going to take on the much more difficult task of doing real science. And that's the problem; it isn't science, it's making up random hypotheses to explain any specific human behaviour you care to name based on why it would have benefited Stone Age individuals or communities. There is no attempt to examine whether actual Stone Age people really did or do benefit, or to determine if there are any other equally plausible explanations. Since there is no attempt to test hypotheses, there is no attempt to do actual science.

Second, fMRI: There are several types of MRI and this is specifically about the "functional" variety that attempts to map the distribution of blood in the brain with high temporal resolution. The basic idea in psychological studies using fMRI is to put a person in the imagining machine and then ask them to perform a specific mental task, such as, to take preposterous example, think of a banana. One then observes which region of the brain "lights up" i.e. notionally starts using more blood. This is then the part of the brain that evolved to deal with whatever task was set.

There are two problems. The first is specificity. "Think of a banana" isn't very specific. Do you imagine what a banana looks like? Tastes like? Smells like? Feels like? Peeled or unpeeled? Ripe or green? And on and on and on. It's possible to deal with this by making the task extremely specific, e.g. giving a mental arithmatic problem. Even in this example, there is more than one method (visual, pure memory, etc.) So if you read about such a study, check if the task is even remotely well defined and if it isn't, discard the evidence - it's unsound.

Second, and even more damning, is the "dead fish" experiment. A research team put a dead fish in an fMRI machine and told it to perform various mental tasks. Of course the fish did not perform these tasks, being dead. Nevertheless, various parts of its brain "lit up." Which tells us that fMRI simply doesn't work very well for present purposes. Results can be random and meaningless. Hence if a conclusion ONLY has fMRI and/or evolutionary psychology evidence to back it up, it's completely unreliable, however plausible it might seem. A side note on this experiment is that it won an IgNobel Prize for being a waste of research money. Put a dead fish in an MRI machine?! What a stupid thing to do! Not so - this experiment is extremely important but you can be forgiven for thinking it is dumb if you only read a headline. So don't judge science from headlines. You will end up misled.

An important caveat about fMRI is that it CAN be useful for physiological purposes e.g. locating brain injuries. The main difference is if structures seen in scans persist for a long time rather than being ephemeral artifacts created by the algorithm used to reconstruct the image from the data.

The fact that I've spent so much time warning you, dear reader, not to take the scientific contents of this book at face value is why I can't really recommend it, despite for the most part being solidly in support of the author's overall aims in regard to social acceptance of diversity in human psychology. Very disappointing.

Eight intelligences that we all have, but in different ratios. When a child, (most likely a boy) is labeled ADD/ADHD, chances are he has a lot of bodily/kinesthetic learning.
There are suggestions for games, software, and supplies for each lesson as well as further reading.

Discovering and encouraging your child's multiple intelligences

This book has some good points, such as the discussion of how the idea of ADD first rose, and the history of its progression to near fad status in the 1990s and beyond. The book falls apart when the author begins to talk about his ideas on what needs to be done. A mishmash of pseudoscience, psychobabble, popular pedagogy, gender stereotyping, poor sourcing, and anecdotal evidence, it falls far short of what one would expect in a scholarly work. The author scoffs at the idea of double-blind testing and evidence based medicine, preferring to dredge up a series of anecdotal stories to support his favored views. Not worth the time.

En este libro Thomas Armstrong explica clara y sintéticamente la teoría de las inteligencias múltiples (IM) desarrollada por Howard Gardner, mostrando de qué manera los docentes pueden ponerla en práctica en el aula. El autor nos indica cómo explorar las inteligencias múltiples propias y cómo iniciar a los alumnos en las siete inteligencias. También nos enseña a crear unidades de instrucción en torno a las IM y cómo realizar evaluaciones dentro de este marco teórico. El libro incluye, asimismo, secciones que tratan el manejo de la clase, la educación especial, las habilidades cognitivas y las estrategias didácticas. Las inteligencias múltiples en el aula constituye una excelente guía, con explicaciones claras y consejos prácticos para identificar, sustentar y apoyar las cualidades singulares de cada alumno.

As a teacher I've found this to be a valuable tool in working with students who doubt their overall intelligence because their "style" doesn't mesh with the prevailing paradigm of North American education.

The text features and style of writing are very accessible to parents and children, as opposed to the jargonistic academic vocabulary that marks most documents on Howard Gardiner's original research. As an assistant to Dr. Gardiner, Dr. Armstrong brings considerable understanding to the material, without putting it beyond the reach of the people who can most benefit by it.

My only frustration with this book is a lack of some sort of diagnostic (even recognizing that the term "diagnostic" would perforce be used loosely) to help kids and parents more accurately rank their strength in any of the 8/9 intelligences.

This book has a permanent location in my classroom.½

Your brain is not a machine: it's a rainforest. Human beings and human brains exist along continua. Categories always obscure as well as illuminate. Competence is culturally defined. Success in life comes from a combination of adapting the cognitive self to the environment and the environment to the cognitive self. There are many ways to adapt: lifestyle choices, assistive technologies, spending time with people that make you happy. Positive niche construction directly modifies the brain, enhancing its ability to respond positively. Neurodiversity as a concept is absolutely crawling with human dignity, and this is a virtuous and important book.½

An easy to read summary of a strictly academic focus in schools vs a more holistic focus. I didn't learn anything new as my school has a holistic approach.

If you are into the analysis of what each stage of life is about and want to understand more about the middle-life crises and fear of death, this book is for you. A great insight into the stages of human development.½

Challenges current diagnoses of attention deficit disorder and shows how to deal with short attention spans.

From the Author
Book does NOT say there are no hyper kids
I would like the readers to know that my book does NOT say that there are no distractible, hyperactive, or impulsive kids out there. Rather, it argues that the ADD/ADHD concept is not helpful in understanding these behaviors, and gets in the way of our appreciating the wholeness of each child. I also am not against medication of kids in certain situations, but believe that parents have a right to know the full range of non-drug options that are available for helping their "attention-different" kids achieve success in life.

A Kid's Guide to Mulitple Intelligences

In a way, it's a good book, since it covers a rather neglected topic-- people.

But it's also very very long and shit, you know.

"Early Childhood-- The Magical Mystery Years"

There's a fog upon the lake, and my friends have lost their way.

(It still sounds like 'the lake', to me.)

Yeah.... someone needs to listen to the Magical Mystery Tour album for about 900 hours. ("Come up for the Mystery Tour..... (It's an invitation)..... The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away..... The magical mystery tour is hoping to take you away.....")

But, whatever.

(8/10)