Too Many Students Graduating With Honors? How About I Add 1 More To Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (MI) List Of 9 To Make 10!?

Teachers, honor your students – and their fathers and mothers!

(Images: “Multiple Awards” from ocwins.com, MI from bing.com)

Katrina Anne Juayong says, “‘Progress Or Lowered Standards?’ Social Media User Questions Increasing Number Of Students Graduating With Honors” (29 May 2024, Pop!, inquirer.net):

It’s graduation season. Pero bakit parang lahat ng mga bata may honor at awards? Sorry hindi naman sa hindi masaya para sa kanila, pero naalala ko lang ang hirap mag-honor dati at pag may honor ka parang nakakabilib talaga. Musta naman yun 2/3 ng class may honor? Tapos kulelat tayo sa PISA?

[It’s graduation season. But why does everyone seem to have honors and awards? Sorry, it’s not like I’m not happy for them, but I (remember) how hard it was to have honors, so when you (got) awarded, (it was) a proud moment. How do we manage to have 2/3 of the class with honors? But we (are last) in PISA?]

Me: Teacher’s questioning is basic – differently, I question PISA. OECD is the international Office for Economic Co-operation & Development; PISA is the Programme for International Student Assessment. As a teacher myself, UP Los Baños BSA Ag Ed (1965), Teacher Professional (1964); yes, I took that very first Civil Service Teacher’s Exam and passed with 80.6% (no reviews, no reviewers).

Now, I question the fact that it is the OECD that which is measuring our students when OECD is only Economics!

I question OECD’s PISA as it is used for student assessment – instead, I recommend Harvard professor Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (MI) as the fundamental guide for student education at any level, and as basis for any exercises, exams, whether local, national or international.

The revolutionary theory of MI by Mr Gardner says that everyone has any number of the following nine (9) intelligences (alphabetically arranged):

Existential,
Interpersonal,
Intrapersonal,
Kinaesthetic,
Linguistic,
Mathematical,
Musical,
Naturalistic,
Visual.

That is, everyone has the genes to be intelligent in any of those 9 fields. Today, I am going to add to the 9 MI a 10th MI (still alphabetical):

Creative Thinking, Existential, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Kinaesthetic, Linguistic, Mathematical, Musical, Naturalistic, Visual. (Look at “Mathematical” as “Critical Thinking.”)

I alternatively call that “Frank A Hilario’s Thesis of Natural Talents (TNT).” TNT: Explosive!

So? We people have to recognize that we have multiple IQs! So, Ms Katrina, do not be surprised that there are many students with awards of all kinds!

Ergo:
To the above question of “’Progress or lowered standards?’ Social media user questions increasing number of students graduating with honors.”
My Answer is: “Progress!

With MI, “walang bubo” (Nobody is dumb.)

But, with my alma mater University of the Philippines not bothered by not teaching MI, I teacher am bothered! The UP System has 9 component universities: UP Baguio, UP Cebu, UP Diliman, UP Los Baños, UP Manila, UP Mindanao, UP Tacloban, UP Visayas, and UP Open University – none of these is teaching MI, which tells this teacher that the UP System has much to learn!@517