The Disciplined Mind: Beyond Facts and Standardized Tests, the K-12 Education that Every Child Deserves [Paperback]

Howard Gardner (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 1, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0140296247 | ISBN-13: 978-0140296242 | Edition: Later Printing

In The Disciplined Mind, Howard Gardner argues that K-12 education should strive for a deep understanding of three classical principles: truth, beauty, and goodness. Such an understanding requires mastery of the major disciplines that human beings have created over the centuries. As powerful examples of his approach, Gardner describes an education that illuminates the theory of evolution, the music of Mozart, and the lessons of the Holocaust. Far from the standardized test mentality that has gripped both policy makers and the public, Gardner envisions an education that preserves the strengths of a traditional humane education while preparing younger generations for the challenges of the future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A must-read for every educator, parent or anyone who cares about our children's future. (Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence) -- The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Howard Gardner is Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard University; Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine; and Codirector of Harvard Project Zero.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Later Printing edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140296247
• ISBN-13: 978-0140296242
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gardner's Rolling Stone October 15, 2002

By Mark Valentine

Format:Paperback

Fortunately for readers (and anyone connected to education), Gardner has not been idle since he first published his benchmark book Frames of Mind. I sincerely appreciated reading how he has continued to develop his thinking in cognitive psychology and his suggestions for education need to be taken seriously as a blueprint for change. Along with Postman, Kohn, Ravitch, Darling-Hammond, Allen, and Perrone, Gardner takes the position that education relates cultural values as much as anything. Further, those values need to engage the student in sustained, meaningful encounters in science, art, and narrative that produce a vigorous, cognitive growth. His candid suggestions for educators to assimilate units on truth, beauty, and goodness suggest that Gardner is not only willing to make a radical suggestions for the advancement of learning among children (in the spirit of Dewey and Bruner), but also that the humanitarian interests in education are worth sustaining; that is, for Gardner, meaning needs to take ascendency in our instruction.

Gardner is a fantastic writer. He has a gift for explanation and explication; I recommend the book if only for the Appendix. He delineates between two world views in education and it is worth the price of the book itself.

Yes, his suggestions are radical and extreme, but being normal is only taking education down to a new nadir. I heartily endorse this book.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Golden Standard for the Educated Person October 12, 2005

By Donald Mitchell HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

In previous books, Professor Gardner has introduced us to important concepts like multiple intelligences (Frames of Mind) and how little university graduates can make practical application of anything they learn (The Unschooled Mind). In The Disciplined Mind, he takes those concepts and combines them to define a minimum educational standard: Introducing students to the thought processes of major disciplines to appreciate important issues from the perspective of multiple intelligences.

To exemplify the point, Professor Gardner develops examples of his concept involving Darwin's Finches (as a window on evolutionary thinking), one scene from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart (as a window onto social commentary and music) and the Wannsee Conference in Nazi Germany (as a window onto the banal evil of the Holocaust). He sees the fundamental questions that education should address as following into the subjects of truth, beauty and goodness (or good versus evil) which these three examples epitomize.

Those sections were great fun, but the most valuable part of the book comes in chapter 10 where he addresses "Getting There". It's a marvelous description of how to create positive organizational change within education. Professor Gardner gets tough in pointing out that good leadership is essential. Otherwise, multidisciplinary means just messing around with whatever appeals to you . . . and not learning a darn thing of lasting importance.

I can relate to that point. One of my first college courses was intended to teach us the historical discipline by working with primary sources about the Entresol Club in France before the Revolution. But the case didn't really work for that purpose and the leadership was muddled. The only thing I learned was the entresol was the floor above the ground floor in a French building. That has helped me in elevators several times since then. But I had to learn the historical discipline elsewhere.

He points out several key lessons:

Have a long-term perspective

Be flexible and seek small victories

Anticipate setbacks and be prepared for them

Allow time for reflection

Build on strengths

Pay attention to implicit messages in the institutional culture

Create a community that cares

Visit and be visited

Cultivate new energies

Commit yourself to the process of change

I was reminded of Peter Senge's excellent book, The Dance of Change, as I read this section.

The next best part of the book came in chapter 9 where Professor Gardner explained how multiple intelligences can be brought to bear for understanding.

This material is a classic for introducing any important subject:

1. Provide powerful points of entry that engage students.

2. Offer apt analogies to make the material accessible.

3. Deliver multiple representations of the core ideas of the topic that capture each of the multiple intelligences.

Many of the people who have been honored with the MacArthur Prize Fellowship (the so-called Genius award) fail to impress me as being geniuses. Professor Gardner is the happy exception to that observation. This book is a marvelous summation of his perspective and how to bridge the unsatisfying gap between classical "memorize everything" education to produce the "whole person" and the pressure now to produce highly functional "specialists" who are ignorant outside their specialties.

Bravo, Professor Gardner!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Reading for Educators but not for the Impatient Reader June 14, 2009

By dr stock

Format:Paperback

Howard Gardner has remarkable insights about what schools should be doing. He discusses some things a rookie teacher such as myself has barely given thought to. I now have a better vision of what I should be doing as a teacher and how to manage the various agendas that are pushed on teachers from every direction. I give four, maybe five stars for Gardner's insights but because this was such a tedious read, cannot give the final product the same rating. Educators have much to gain by reading this book but will need patience if they hope to read it cover to cover.