Five Minds For The Future

Howard Gardner

 Before books, memory was prized. Today, the capacity to survey massive amounts of info, and to organise it in useful ways, is much more important How do we nurture workers who will not simply pursue their self-interest but will realise their core mission of their calling, or cultivate citizens who care passionately about the society in which they live and the planet they will pass on to their successors

The current globilization features 4 unprecendented trends

1. The movement of capital and other market instruments around the globe 2. The movement of human beings across borders, 100 million immigrants at any one time around the world 3. The movement of info thru cyberspace 4. The movement of popular culture (clothing, Food) across borders

1. The Disciplined Mind

Appreciate the difference between subject matter, and discipline How to achieve a disciplined mind?? 1. Identify truly important concepts within the discipline 2. Spend a significant amount of time on this topic 3. Approach the topic in a variety of ways 4. Set up performances of understanding

 Measurement of learning must reveal whether the student can actually make use of the classroom material outside the school

2. The Synthesizing Mind

The amount of accumulated kledge is reportedly doubling every 2 or 3 years (wisdom presumably accrues more slowly!)

Kinds of Synthesis
Narratives Taxonomies Complex concepts Rules and aphorisms Powerful metaphor, images, themes Embodiments without words Theories Metatheories

 We know from the notebooks of master creators - Picasso, Freud, Darwin, Martha Graham - that first drafts are often primitive and yet may contain the crucial nucleus of the final version

 For you to be here now, trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. Its an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once.
Bill Bryson (A Short History Of Nearly Everything)

3. The Creating Mind

the acid test for creativity is simply stated: has the domain in which you operate been significantly altered by your contribution? Google gives employees a day a week to work on projects that are not directly linked to revenue No society can be composed entirely of creators; they are by nature destabilizing.

 Yet another form of group creativity has recently coalesced - the wisdom of crowds. We see this phenomenon at work in the Google sources that are the most popular, the Amazon books that are recommended, the eBay sellers the most trusted Open source programming Wikipedia The individual contribution seems less critical, the group mind more crucial

4. The Respectful Mind

Note the peaceful resolutions achieved in Northern Ireland and South Africa We must love one another or die. (W H Auden) A truly respectful individual offers the benefit of the doubt to all human beings.

5. The Ethical Mind

Reggio Emilia in northern Italy 100,000 people High quality community Unparalleled resources for quality infant-toddler centres and preschools What happens to the graduates? Just look at our community

Signposts towards the achievement of good work

1. Mission. 2. Models. 3. Mirror test - individual (Q. Am I being a good worker, and if not, what can I do to become one? 4. Mirror test - professional responsibility

 We are responsible not only for what we do but for what we do not do. (JeanBaptiste Moliere)

Key Overviews
The disciplined person should embody the ways of thinking and acting that distinguish her chosen discipline(s) and not just spew forth a lot of heterogeneous kledge about the subject Synthesizer - put ideas together in a cogent and replicable way, not just a convenient or cute package

 Creative mind - original and appropriate, sheer novelty, eccentricity or instant celebrity not sufficient Respectful mind - transcend mere tolerance, instead, display active interest in and affection for those who are different Ethical mind - support the broader profession and the wider society - even, or especially, when those actions go against ones narrow self-interest