7

My View of the Elephant

Are you old enough to remember the first views of our planet from space — the first crude attempts to paste satellite images together into one overall view of the globe? The images were from different angles, and didn’t match along the edges. Each image seemed to have a different color shading. But still, in spite of the imperfections, there it was: our own planet, seen for the first time, a startling new view of ourselves.

We’ve covered a lot of ground: new theories, new ideas. It’s time to put them together into a coherent picture. I believe that the new theories we’ve examined give us a first glimpse of the Intelligence River. Our picture of intelligence is far from complete. It’s like those first pasted-together pictures of earth seen from space. But it’s a lot better than what we had even a few years ago. And it’s good enough to give us the practical help we want.

We’ve looked at four main perspectives on human intelligence: cognitive abilities, multiple intelligences, real-world intelligence, and executive functions. Each gave you a new way to think about intelligence. In addition, I’ve directed your attention to the natural human urge to learn and to the complex intertwining of knowledge and intelligence.

At first glance, the four views seem to be of four different creatures. But for all their apparent differences, we know they must be looking at the same elephant.

My goal in this chapter is to sketch out one possible way that these different points of view might be combined to answer the question, “What makes a person intelligent?” I want to argue that each has an essential insight, and that the insights fit together, so that their sum is greater than any one part.

These different views, precisely because they are different, give you many different possible approaches to help your child develop to the fullest. Each is a part of the whole. Each adds richness to the overall mix. Each points you towards a whole set of practical strategies which you’ll use to help your child grow up more effectively intelligent.

The very strength of the different theories is in their differences. The differences aren’t mutually contradictory. It isn’t that one is right and the others wrong. They can fit together, each one part of a jig-saw puzzle of human abilities, where the assembled puzzle organizes a jumble of elements, so we see a big picture where we saw only confusion. That’s the picture I want to show you now. As that big picture comes into focus, we’ll abandon our elephant — an image of the confusion and seeming contradiction of different theories — and see instead a river — the image of a coherent view of human intelligence.

The Tributaries of the Intelligence River

The human brain is the most complex device we are aware of. Compared to it, the largest supercomputer is a wind-up toy. We can’t yet understand the brain in all its complexity — and we may never be able to.

What understanding we do have is still very rough, patched together like those first views of earth from space. But even though we’re forced by our current knowledge to see patchwork, we know that the real brain typically functions in a wonderfully smooth and coordinated way. It’s only our own limited ability to grasp the whole that forces us to see it in parts, in different functions, as separate intelligences. The unified whole is there, each part flowing smoothly together with others. We can glimpse that unified whole, even though we can’t yet understand how our brain manages it.

It’s astonishing when you think about it: One of the biggest mysteries of our universe sits balanced on our shoulders!

The great thing about the theories we’ve looked at is that each of them makes visible some particular aspect of this astonishing device we carry around so casually wherever we go. These theories are far from being ivory-tower abstractions. They offer us vital guidance, if we’ll only reach out and take their helping hands.

And the exciting thing for the children of the world is that each of these views gives us a way to help them reach farther — be more intelligent. Instead of the confusion of conflicting views, we have the opportunities of many ways to help all children develop.

So, how do we turn our amalgamated elephant into a river? How can we fit together the components our different theories see so we can do good work for our kids?

Every real river is a complex system, where the final river is composed of many small branches, flowing together into major tributaries, then finally into one unified and powerful current. Each theory we’ve looked at contributes an essential tributary to the overall flow of the Intelligence River. Each contributes to the overall power. Each is really an idea — a concept that shows us a way we can help our children develop their intelligence. As I look at each theory, my question is always the same: What practical help can you take from this way of thinking about human intelligence? What does this theory, this idea, contribute to the Intelligence River? How can the different parts flow together? Let’s start putting together our map.