Why do many parents dislike Multiple Intelligences?
(1) Some view it as being a further “dumbing down” of academic achievement, reflective of the overall anti-intellectual trend in public education. (2) It doesn’t allow parents to know how their child is doing in school. If Johnny makes a poster and Billy writes a dissertation on Native Americans and they both get A’s, was it really the same quality level of work and amount of work required? (3) Multiple Intelligences are often the excuse used for abandoning letter grades and adopting “Performance Based Assessments” that further muddy the waters in academic accountability. If districts teach according to Multiple Intelligences, it’s often not too long before they replace a standard report card with letters A, B, C, D or F with things like “Demonstrating, Consistently Demonstrating, Exceeding.” (4) Multiple Intelligences are the reason behind more posters, songs, dances, videos, and dioramas as classwork (often as group work) in lieu of written papers, book reports, and oral presentation
