5 Minds for the Future

I managed to read Howard Gardner’s most recent book, 5 Minds for the Future these holidays and think it a useful tract. I enjoyed the book.

It would be rare that an educator did not know Gardner’s contested work on multiple intelligences and to have made use of it in their classroom.

He opens his book suggesting that the these ‘minds’ will be needed collectively and by individuals who are to ‘thrive’ in our hyperconnected future. The 5 minds are:

1. Disciplined – we all need to have mastered one discipline to prosper or run the risk of being limited to menial tasks
2. Synthesizing – traditionally valuable, now being able to synthesize from a ‘dizzying’ range of sources becomes even more invaluable or the individual will be personally and professionally overwhelmed
3. Creating – builds on the previous and allows the individual to step ahead, even of technology, so not to run the risk of being replaced by computers
4. Respectful – the need to understand others is fundamental in the home, workplace and in a global sense
5. Ethical – going beyone self-interest and able to ponder the greater issues of existence if we are to flourish responsibly

The last two ‘minds’ are particularly interesting within this framework and give Gardner’s thesis a usefulness to learning professionals beyond the norm for this kind of list, particularly as it is so accessible to students.

Have you read this book? Thoughts?

I will post some comments later in the term to feed back what my 17 year old students feel about Gardner’s suggestions for our ‘future minds’.

You can watch Howard Gardner’s lecture on this topic here.