Multiple Intelligences: Critical Pedagogies in the Classroom and Beyond

The importance of including the many different styles of learning became clear to me both in my personal journey to consciousness and my perceived deficit in traditional pedagogies which include only the lecture format with no inclusion of the manipulation of space, kinesthetics, language, or tools for the stimulation of other intelligences. What these traditional pedagogies lack creates an alien and unappealing learning environment for all those students looking to collaborate with peers, or move their bodies, or be creative. I found my immersion into the PHMC educational style to be lackluster as the children were not challenged to think for themselves, but instead stomach the information we as experts have to pass on.

If our goal is to improve children's lifelong eating and physical activity habits then we cannot only rely upon the logic of the USDA to inform the lesson plans. The children must be asked of their ideals regarding food and urge them to find the contradiction in the social makeup that constructs their food habits. Where does the food come from? Why do you like fatty and sugary foods? Is nutrition important to you? Why not? These questions need to be asked and the kids need to be able to have a conversation about it because until they see nutrition as being a qualification in their ideal eating habits, our work will only scratch the surface of their customs.

Essentially, these children need to be capable of critical thinking without the prompting of an authority. They need to be able to work out a problem of nutrition within the context of social, political, and economic forces as a collective so that they can feel empowered to change their food habits. It seems futile to provide "empowerment packets" to the teachers without an empowerment model to inform the work of the students. For the most part these empowerment packets are comprised of writing prompts, reading comprehension, writing and goal setting, and math constructed responses, and as a practitioner of critical pedagogy I have the knowledge and experience to say these packets do not empower.

My standards of empowerment lie in collective dialogue, interactive work (incorporating the multiple intelligences), and the process of "praxis". Without these critical ingredients, the classroom becomes underwhelming and based on the logic of the dominant authority. Such a dominant authority will then dominate the lesson and push critical nutrition from the forefront.

What these children need are allies in the process to construct a personal health plan and understand the interpersonal, social, economic, and political relationships to food, without this web of interests, food loses important context. Such a style is in effect lying through omission. Moreover, the USDA's embrace of contextualizing nutrition can be seen in their materials combining food and math or food and reading proving the relationship food can have with all sorts of disciplines.

Moving away from the classroom, I approach the administrative side. I need an ally to help implement these critical nutrition ideals, because after all, the educators/authorities are in need of these critical philosophies and models in order to better conceptualize the goals of an organization. (In other words, those involved in the working of an organization should consistently be reevaluating the goals and ideals based on the demands of the workforce and clientele. If the goals and/or ideals change such change should be reflected in the actions of the workforce.) There is more to this work than making children laugh and sit still for 45 minutes. Our goals should be to engage them and challenge them to make up their own minds. Only they should be laughing in the process.