Donald Mitchell 2005-10-13
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
In previous books, Professor Gardner has introduced us to important concepts like multiple intelligences (Frames of Mind) and how little university graduates can make practical application of anything they learn (The Unschooled Mind). In The Disciplined Mind, he takes those concepts and combines them to define a minimum educational standard: Introducing students to the thought processes of major disciplines to appreciate important issues from the perspective of multiple intelligences.
To exemplify the point, Professor Gardner develops examples of his concept involving Darwin's Finches (as a window on evolutionary thinking), one scene from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart (as a window onto social commentary and music) and the Wannsee Conference in Nazi Germany (as a window onto the banal evil of the Holocaust). He sees the fundamental questions that education should address as following into the subjects of truth, beauty and goodness (or good versus evil) which these three examples epitomize.
Those sections were great fun, but the most valuable part of the book comes in chapter 10 where he addresses "Getting There". It's a marvelous description of how to create positive organizational change within education. Professor Gardner gets tough in pointing out that good leadership is essential. Otherwise, multidisciplinary means just messing around with whatever appeals to you . . . and not learning a darn thing of lasting importance.
I can relate to that point. One of my first college courses was intended to teach us the historical discipline by working with primary sources about the Entresol Club in France before the Revolution. But the case didn't really work for that purpose and the leadership was muddled. The only thing I learned was the entresol was the floor above the ground floor in a French building. That has helped me in elevators several times since then. But I had to learn the historical discipline elsewhere.
He points out several key lessons:
Have a long-term perspective
Be flexible and seek small victories
Anticipate setbacks and be prepared for them
Allow time for reflection
Build on strengths
Pay attention to implicit messages in the institutional culture
Create a community that cares
Visit and be visited
Cultivate new energies
Commit yourself to the process of change
I was reminded of Peter Senge's excellent book, The Dance of Change, as I read this section.
The next best part of the book came in chapter 9 where Professor Gardner explained how multiple intelligences can be brought to bear for understanding.
This material is a classic for introducing any important subject:
1. Provide powerful points of entry that engage students.
2. Offer apt analogies to make the material accessible.
3. Deliver multiple representations of the core ideas of the topic that capture each of the multiple intelligences.
Many of the people who have been honored with the MacArthur Prize Fellowship (the so-called Genius award) fail to impress me as being geniuses. Professor Gardner is the happy exception to that observation. This book is a marvelous summation of his perspective and how to bridge the unsatisfying gap between classical "memorize everything" education to produce the "whole person" and the pressure now to produce highly functional "specialists" who are ignorant outside their specialties.
Bravo, Professor Gardner!
