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The 1367th meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was held on Thursday, March 30 2006 at 5 p.m. at the New Haven Lawn Club. Some 60 members and their guests enjoyed wine and companionship before the talk. At 5.30 the President of the Academy, Ernest Kohorn opened the evening proceedings by welcoming the audience. He announced the election of two new members, Frederica Brennerman, Judge Trial Referee and Paul Whitehead, Professor of Mathematics, Capitol Community College, Hartford. He welcomed Judge Brennerman, who was in the audience, the role model for "Judging Amy", a popular television program. Dr. Kohorn described some major changes that had occurred in the physical plant of the offices of the Academy. Due to a need for more space by the Music Department, the books of the Publications section of the Academy were consolidated and the office space also consolidated with the help of the removal of some walls and the building of some new ones, as well as with the heroic help of the managers of the Publications section. The books are currently well housed and accessible. However the office is in need of a new copy machine and a fax machine. The cost would be $400, a sizable amount to withdraw from the Academy's meager budget. Dr. Kohorn called upon the members to dip into their pockets and donate whatever they could to provide this much needed equipment. Dr. Kohorn then introduced
the speaker for the evening, Dr.Robert Sternberg, the Dean of
Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. When Dr Sternberg accepted
the invitation to address the Academy, he was the IBM Professor
of Psychology at Yale. When he moved to Boston, rather than canceling
his commitment despite a hectic schedule, he persevered until
he found a date that was possible for both his schedule and that
of the Academy. Professor Sternberg is the author of the Triarchic
Theory of Intelligence, analytical, practical and creative and
also the Theory of Love as a Story. Dr. Sternberg's talk was
entitled "Culture and Intelligence". He said that during
the reception he had been asked about his theory of love. This
question was repeated by the President in his introduction so
he said he would give the five minute version at the end of his
designated talk which was about multiple intelligences and culture.
In the meantime, though, he wondered if anybody wore a hat these
days, and if not did anyone have a basket? He began to define
his theory of multiple intelligence, analytical, practical and
creative, and its dependence on the culture within which it is
assessed, when a basket arrived and without changing his didactic
demeanor he said to the audience, "Now, this basket will
be passed around among the audience and members will donate money
for the sorely needed office equipment". (Surely a perfect
example of creative intelligence!) Again without flinching he
continued his remarks about culture and intelligence despite
appreciative uproar from the audience. Dr Sternberg said it was
essential to be aware of the culture within which any intellectual
assessments were being made. In England he was" a total
idiot when crossing the road" and suggested that culture
transforms peoples' competencies. His theory of successful intelligence
was based on the ability to succeed in one's own culture with
one's own goals, using creative, analytical and practical skills.
Wherever he went in the world, he noted that children needed
competencies to survive that were dependent on their environment
and culture and that were skills. different from the academic
ones being universally tested. In Kenya for example, using contextual
cues, children were able to identify those herbs that were used
to treat parasitic illness, not an item usually found on an academic
test. In Kenya also using practical intelligence children found
it more adaptive to become an apprentice than to go to school,
again quite different from the goals of our culture. In Alaska
children develop a usually unrecognized skill, that of navigating
the ice with a dog sled. So that while the mental skills needed
to be intelligent are largely the same from one culture to another,
how they play themselves out may be different. This is not recognized
by psychologists applying standardized tests in different contexts,
even if the tests are translated into the language of the culture
when necessary, so that incorrect conclusions are drawn. The
same is true in a multicultural society when tests are given
indiscriminately to people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Questioned about the"No Child Left Behind"law and the
incessant testing it demands he said that wise judgement and
creativity are qualities needed to be successful and neither
are currently being taught or tested. He pointed out that no
one obtained tenure in an academic position simply for having
memorized books well. |