Frames of Mind

“The value of Frames of Mind is less in the answers it proposes than in the problems it poses. They are important problems, and time spent thinking about them will be time well spent.”

“Because of [Frames of Mind] Gardner is both lionized and exploited as one of the most famous educational theorists in the world. His notion of multiple intelligences—including the idea that musical, athletic, and other talents are separate from, but as important as, high SAT scores—has inspired scores of books, journal articles, conferences, and lesson plans for public schools.”

“Mention Howard Gardner's name to a growing cadre of educators and the response verges on the reverence teenagers lavish on a rock star. The cult of Gardner began...with his book Frames of Mind....Teachers say he has liberated them from one-size-fits-all pedagogy and given them a framework to help children develop individual strengths—as artists, scientists, or just good citizens.”

“Timely, wide-reaching and in many ways brilliant....[Gardner's] effort to bring together the data of neurology, exceptionality development, and symbolic-cultural skills is not only heroic but it makes extremely evocative reading.”

“There’s a book I recommend for everybody: It’s Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind. It has helped me immensely.”

“Howard Gardner has long been a groundbreaking thinker in psychology. Here he takes a fresh look at his classic Frames of Mind, a widely cited and impactful work on intelligence. I built my own thought on Howard’s remarkable scholarship. Frames of Mind is a master class not just in his thinking about excellence, but in thinking itself.”

“A landmark book. Readers found themselves in its deeply humanistic message: We can appreciate more in each other and ourselves. Decades later, this work speaks to new challenges. As machines claim the right to do more and more of our thinking, it’s essential that we celebrate the full range of our human potential.”

“Frames of Mind belongs to an exceedingly small category of books that have changed the way we think about an essential topic—in this case human intelligence. It's a testament to the book’s success that today we can hardly remember that, during the long decades before it was published, the idea of a single kind of intelligence, measured by I.Q. tests, was conventional wisdom among educators. Gardner’s work has opened previously restricted opportunities for millions of young Americans.”

“A mark of an important idea is just how hard it is to imagine being without it. Howard Gardner’s notion of multiple intelligences is just that: For more than forty years, we have recognized that facility with visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, musical-rhythmic (and more) were distinct. With decades of use in education and beyond, how did we ever think (convenience, love of hierarchy?) that we could stamp people with a single number and expect that to characterize intelligence? I look forward to the next decades of these ideas, and to seeing what new forms of intelligence we will recognize and celebrate.”