Five Minds...Four Minds Too Much?

In this day and age, I think it is safe to say that all of us are highly susceptible to fall into the trap of becoming too enthralled with the prospects of the future. The word itself speaks of things to come, and so we spend the time between then and now thinking of the numerous possibilities that we have yet to encounter. This is most likely what Professor Gardner was doing when he was thinking about his "Five Minds for the Future".

The lecture and the point given were undoubtedly very well thought out and I could clearly see the point he was trying to make, but I feel that I must also point out that in thinking of ways to improve our future, we mustn't lose our sense of reality and become disillusioned with mere possibilities alone.

I think that we were asked to do a reflection on how to make Gardner's points a concrete reality because he himself didn't provide the necessary insight. He proposed his five minds for the future, but on all accounts he never got past the examples. And I can see why; the pen may be mightier than the sword, but this is so because things are much easier said (or in this case, written) than done.

The first two minds he presented, a Disciplined mind and a Synthesizing mind, are most likely the most prevalent type of minds in our present society. These are the ones given the most importance, and possessing either one or both can earn great esteem from peers. These are easily developed concretely, through habit, self awareness and vigilance. But I think what concerned Gardner more was not the ease in which we learned but that our idea of their real meaning is insufficient.

As for the Creative mind, I think our previous lecture on Sir Ken Robinson has given us enough knowledge to understand why it is harder now than ever to make creative thinking flourish. The root cause is fundamental, and we cannot simply try to cover up the symptoms.

But I think the hardest to concretely develop are the Respective and Ethical minds, for obvious reasons. They depend greatly on the individual, and can vary from person to person. Gardner himself said so, and I completely agree that "the issues of respect and ethics, which are hard to measure objectively, are so terribly important".

To conclude, I believe that to fully implement Gardner's five minds entails a complete overhaul of our present system, not just of education but of practically everything. Taking each of his five minds separately and developing one in an individual is easy, but integrating all of them in one person seems too optimistic and probably too much to ask of anyone.