On May 19, 2013 I attended graduation ceremonies at Berkshire Hills Music Academy (BHMA) in South Hadley, Massachusetts.  BHMA provides post-secondary education to young adults with developmental disabilities who have special interests and abilities in music. This year there were eight graduates of BHMA’s  two-year certificate program (they also have summer programs, and an extended learning community program).  Students take...Read More

A New York Times article that appeared April 12, 2013 reported that a high school teacher in Albany, New York recently gave an assignment to students asking them, presumably as a lesson on the Holocaust, to write a persuasive essay arguing from the Nazi point of view that Jews were the source of their problems.  The assignment...Read More

The use of Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory) has been increasing by leaps and bounds in countries across the globe.  In many countries, it has become part of national policy.  In India, for example, as part of its National Curriculum Framework for School Education teachers are required to have familiarity with the...Read More

Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory) has revolutionized the field of education.  But it also has important implications for developmental psychology.  Gardner’s theory says that there are at least eight different intelligences:  linguistic (word smart), logical-mathematical (numbers and reasoning smart), spatial (picture smart), musical (music smart), bodily-kinesthetic (body smart)), interpersonal (people smart), intrapersonal...Read More

Increasingly we’re seeing early childhood education programs veering toward formal academic learning.  This is a distressing trend, inasmuch as it makes young children do things (formal reading and math, computer instruction) that they are not developmentally ready for, and that take precious time away from letting children be children.  There are no critical periods in...Read More