November 19, 2004

Definition of Intelligence by Howard Gardner:

“An intelligence is the ability to solve problems or to create products,
that are valued within one or more cultural settings… Intelligence is a set
of skills that make it possible for a person to solve problems in life…
Intelligence also includes the potential for finding or creating solutions
for problems, which involves gathering new knowledge.”

Two Kinds of Intelligence

By Rumi (1207 – 1273):

There are two kinds of intelligence: one acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from the new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world
you get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining information.
You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge,
getting always more marks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet, one
already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its spring box,
and a freshness in the center of the chest.
This other intelligence does not turn yellow or stagnate.
It’s fluid, and it doesn’t move from outside to inside
through the conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.

B'Shalom,

Avniel