Latest Howard Gardner Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Any profession should have norms around the issue you raise. And, in the words of the great economic thinker Albert Hirschman, we all owe a measure of loyalty to professional norms. But when the norms seem unhelpful or unproductive, one needs to speak up - to activate voice. And in the extreme, if the profession and one's colleagues seem estranged from a thoughtfully selected course of action, you need to consider the possibility of exit. Of course, if you knowingly violate norms or laws, you need to be prepared to face the consequences - or to lead a revolution!

  Howard Gardner

  Loyalty, Revolution, Action

  Source: multipleintelligencesoasis.org

• The wonderful thing about the theater is that it can emphasize BOTH our diversity AND our common humanity. In many ways, the world of Shakespeare (or Aeschylus or Racine) is totally different from our world; and yet any human being can look through the differences in dress and mores and discover our common problems, passions, and potentials.

  Howard Gardner

  Passion, Common Humanity, Differences

  Source: howardgardner.com

• In the United States these days, 'diversity' is a big word and a buzzword.

  Howard Gardner

  Diversity, United States, Bigs

  Source: howardgardner.com

• As a planet, we are at risk of destruction (for example, gradually by the warming of the planet; or rapidly, by nuclear war or a pathogen that gets out of control). And these threats require us to work together, and not just to announce our diversity.

  Howard Gardner

  War, Diversity, Risk

  Source: howardgardner.com

• Distinguish between the work and the job title. When I was leaving school in the early 1970s, many people wanted to be journalists, carrying out investigative reporting for print newspapers. Print newspapers may not exist in twenty years. But good thinking and good writing about issues that need to be reported and investigated will always be needed; but where this happens, what it is called, and who pays for it may be quite different than could have been envisioned by the great journalists of the past.

  Howard Gardner

  Jobs, School, Writing

  Source: howardgardner.com

• Don't assume that the way that one searches and researches is the same from one era to another - it isn't. In the 19th century, most research was done by amateurs: either individuals who were rich or individuals who had a day job. In the 20th century, most researchers worked at universities or think tanks and received money from the government or from foundations to pursue their work. In our time, the sources of support and the locations for research may be quite different.

  Howard Gardner

  Jobs, Thinking, Government

  Source: howardgardner.com

• Best of all, persons can sometimes be app-transcendent: making dramatic progress or discoveries, without any dependence on any app. In this context, I like to mention Steve Jobs. While he had as much to do as anyone with the invention and development of apps, he NEVER was limited by the current technology - indeed, he typically transcended it and relied on his own considerable wits.

  Howard Gardner

  Jobs, Technology, Discovery

  Source: howardgardner.com

• If you enjoy reading, writing, learning, and sharing what you have learned, don't hesitate to look for a life where you can continue to do those things. It could be as a scientist, an educator, an editor, a journalist, the founder of an organization. You only live once, and it is a tragedy if you deny yourself these options without trying to pursue them.

  Howard Gardner

  Reading, Writing, Editors

  Source: howardgardner.com

• A person who is app-dependent is always searching for the best app; and as soon as its routine has been executed, the person searches for the next app. A person who is app-enabled also uses apps frequently. But he or she is never limited by the current array of apps; apps will free the person to do what he or she wants to do, or needs to do, irrespective of the next application of the app. An app-enabled person can also put devices away, without feeling bereft.

  Howard Gardner

  Feelings, Want, Next

  Source: howardgardner.com

• If one develops good habits and routines, it is possible to be a responsible educator most of the time; and to marshal the special energies and reflection for those times, when the correct course of action is not clear, or when one is weighing one wrong against another wrong.

  Howard Gardner

  Reflection, Special, Energy

  Source: howardgardner.com

• In every part of the world with which I am familiar, young people are completely immersed in the digital world - so much so, that it is inconceivable to them that they can, for long, be separated from their devices. Indeed, many of us who are not young, who are 'digital immigrants' rather than 'digital natives,' are also wedded to, if not dependent on, our digital devices.

  Howard Gardner

  Long, People, Digital

  Source: howardgardner.com

• A continuing conversation with other persons, with cultural products, and with oneself, is a large part of what it means to be a human being, in our time and perhaps in all time.

  Howard Gardner

  Mean, Conversation, All Time

  Source: howardgardner.com

• I think that every educator, indeed every human being, is concerned with what is true and what is not; what experiences to cherish and which ones to avoid; and how best to relate to other human beings. We differ in how conscious we are of these questions; how reflective we are about our own stances; whether we are aware of how these human virtues are threatened by critiques (philosophical, cultural) and by technologies (chiefly the digital media). A good educator should help us all to navigate our way in this tangled web of virtues.

  Howard Gardner

  Philosophical, Technology, Thinking

  Source: howardgardner.com

• In the United States, if you ask teachers, "Are there children whom we should call 'gifted?'", many if not most will say 'No.' That's the politically correct answer. But if you then ask the teacher to rank order students in terms of how well they paint or write or dance, they'll have little difficulty in doing so.

  Howard Gardner

  Teacher, Children, Writing

  Source: howardgardner.com

• A good person is one who follows the Ten Commandments and the golden rule. There is plenty of precedent in history to guide us and we probably evolved to be sensitive to Bible-Golden Rule situations. But the dilemmas faced by a worker - a journalist, an architect, an auditor - or by a citizen (what position to take on stem cell research, whether to run for office, what is the proper balance between taxation and social nets) - are not questions that can be answered by traditional texts or precedents.

  Howard Gardner

  Running, Cells, Office

  Source: blogs.edweek.org

• While truth is ultimately convergent, beauty is ultimately divergent. No one can and no one should tell anyone else what that person should consider beautiful.

  Howard Gardner

  Beautiful, Divergent, Truth Is

  Source: blogs.edweek.org

• Beauty reveals itself in the course of an experience with an object.

  Howard Gardner

  Courses, Objects

  Source: blogs.edweek.org

• There is no single truth, but each of the scholarly disciplines has methods which lead one ever closer to the truth.

  Howard Gardner

  Discipline, Method, Scholarly

  Source: blogs.edweek.org

• I am relieved that, in my own teaching, I don't have to moderate between high stake teaching and education for the virtues. If I did, I would give students the tools to take the tests but not spend an inordinate amount of time on test prep nor on 'teaching to the test.' If the students, or their parents, want drill in testing, they'd have to go elsewhere. As a professional, my most important obligation is to teach the topic, skills, and methods in ways that I feel are intellectually legitimate.

  Howard Gardner

  Teaching, Skills, Giving

  Source: blogs.edweek.org

• I want to understand how best to create and preserve a form of higher education that we value but that is in jeopardy for many reasons.

  Howard Gardner

  Want, Reason, Form

  Source: howardgardner.com

• I think that I am strongest in linguistic and musical intelligence, and I continue to work on my interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.

  Howard Gardner

  Thinking, Musical, Interpersonal

  Source: howardgardner.com

• Any good teacher should become acquainted with relevant technologies. But the technologies should not dictate an education goal. Rather, the teacher (or parent or student or policy maker) should ask: can technology help to achieve this goal, and which technologies are most likely to be helpful?

  Howard Gardner

  Teacher, Technology, Goal

  Source: howardgardner.com

• I think that any important educational goal can be realized via several routes.

  Howard Gardner

  Educational, Thinking, Goal

  Source: howardgardner.com

• I don't think that it is necessary to rethink curricular goals. But it is certainly worth thinking about whether these goals can be reached in multiple ways.

  Howard Gardner

  Thinking, Goal, Way

  Source: howardgardner.com

• Intelligences are enhanced when a person is engaged in activities that involve the exercise of that intelligence. It helps to have good teachers, ample resources, and personal motivation. Anyone can improve any intelligence; but it is easier to improve the intelligence if those factors are available and if you have high potential in that intelligence.

  Howard Gardner

  Teacher, Motivation, Exercise

  Source: howardgardner.com