Dilip Thakore interviewed Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, in Bangalore. Excerpts.
India has the world’s largest child population of 450 million. what challenges does this phenomenon present to government and society?
Only China has comparable chall-enges, in terms of both size and development. The crucial comparison is between state capitalism in China and market capitalism in India. I happen to favour government or not-for-profit independent schools, as compared to for-profit educational institutions, but there is enough criticism of government schools in India to justify experim-entation. And that’s what is happening now.
Public expenditure on education in India is a mere 3.8 percent of GDP cf. 6-7 percent in the US. What’s your comment?
Everyone knows it is better to spend more on education — leading countries like Finland and Singapore do so without hesitation. But equally important is that the money is well spent. The US has greatly increased expenditure on education without notably better results on any dimension. That is a cautionary tale.
In India, the 300 million-strong middle class sends its children to private schools, while the poor have to make do with government schools with abysmal learning outcomes. as a psychologist/sociologist, can you explain societal indifference to public education?
I am not sure there is societal indifference. What’s lacking are mechanisms to mobilise the apparent indifference. In Western Europe and the US, we talk about civil society — a third sector which builds up pressure — for quality education for all, healthcare, a fair judiciary, free press, services for the disabled, etc. The US has lapsed recently in these areas, suggesting to me that unregulated markets are crushing civil society. From what I can tell, after a brief visit, civil society is underdeveloped in India and that may be one reason why society seems to be indifferent. Now that India has its share of billionaires, I hope some of them will use their resources to help build up civil society — as American billionaire George Soros has done in eastern Europe.
You are globally renowned for your theory of multiple intelligences (MI). Is it your case that every individual has at least one intelligence?
According to the theory, human beings possess all eight-nine intelligences. That is what makes us human! But where we differ is in our proportion of strengths and weaknesses. No two people have exactly the same profile of intellectual strengths and weaknesses. The entire thrust of MI theory as applicable to education, has to do with whether we attempt to reach children in terms of their more abundant intelligences, or expect everyone to learn same things in the same way.
How should teachers discover and encourage the latent intelligences of children?
I was surprised to learn there are very few children’s museums in India. These institutions have blossomed the world over in the past 50 years. There are perhaps 1,000 children’s museums in the US and as many around the world. Spending time with a child in a children’s museum, a science museum, or some other kind of ‘hands-on’ museum is a great way to detect a child’s intelli-gences. However Indian schools can duplicate aspects of a children’s museum for very little expenditure. ‘Hands-on’ areas in a classroom, a school lobby or on the playground can be very revealing about the intelli-gences profiles of children.
You are a great admirer of Mahatma Gandhi whose ideals are practised more in the breach than observance in India…
Having thought about him a lot, I believe Gandhi is the most important human being of the past 1,000 years. Advances in science and art are great, and yet they occur much more frequently than advances in the way that human beings relate to each other. Such advances occurred in the world after Socrates, Jesus, Moses, Confucius, Buddha had inspired their contemporaries. I can think of no one in recent centuries who has added more to our understanding of how humans relate to one another, how they can work peacefully for change, how they can differ with others without violence and, indeed, even strengthen their adversaries in the process of dealing with differences. Gandhi’s influence has been felt in the US in the Civil Rights movement, in South Africa, China, Egypt, even Iran, and in the recent Occupy Wall Street movement and the protests led in India by Anna Hazare. India should be proud of Gandhi; he no longer belongs only to India — he belongs to the world.
From your brief first impressions of the Indian education scenario, how optimistic/pessimistic are you?
What is most inspiring in India is the great interest in education, the trem-endous aspirations across society, and the amount of experimentation that’s going on. But I worry about the excessive commercialisation and marketisation of the educational landscape. Much will be learned from this experimentation. But when the dust settles, I very much hope that the best practices and approaches will become widely known and that government will facilitate their realisation rather than, as presently seems to be the case, make them more difficult to realise.