This Teacher Would Like To Teach The Teachers How To Teach!?

“Potter’s Place School” – My youngest daughter Graciela “Ela” Antonia arrived home early morning Tuesday, 20 Dec, for the Christmas break from teaching at Potter’s Place in El Nido, Palawan. Ela has been trained at UP Los Baños College of Human Ecology (CHE), BS Human Ecology, and she herself finished high school at Cahbriba Alternative School in Los Baños, Laguna.

Also, there is a “relative” connection – The owners of Potter’s Place are Angelo Laririt and Mariglo Ilowa – Marigs is the sister of Armando Venerando “Toto” Ilowa, the husband of another daughter of mine, Teresa Leonor. Toto and Teresa live in Quezon City.

I am myself a teacher – an alumnus of UP Los Baños, BSA Ag Edu, 1965; I passed the 1^st Civil Service Teacher’s Exam in 1964, 80.6%. Once a teacher, always a teacher. And so I googled for “Potter’s Place” and got those images: top image from the website Potter’s Place, pottersplaceschool.com; bottom image from the Facebook page, facebook.com.

On its website, Potter’s Place says: “It is about children, it is about education … Potter's Place School, from Nursery to Fourth Year High School, is truly about learning and experiencing life in a nurturing and affirming environment.”

Established in El Nido, Palawan in Year 2000, it opened to two pre-school children. Every year thereafter, a grade level was added ladder-type, till the pioneering batch finished primary school. We are committed to take them all the way to the end of high school. We are committed to these children's future.

I have just been browsing Potter’s Place Facebook page and it’s a revelation – there are no boring pages; I say the Webmaster is as interested as Potter’s Place is interesting in itself.

That said, as a teacher of high school (and college) students, I advise that Potter’s Place study and apply the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) as proposed to the whole world by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner. I first learned about MI at Cahbriba, introduced by Teacher Pilar who had come back with husband Cielito F Habito from his studies abroad (yes, he was NEDA head once).

Here are the intelligences (alphabetical):

1.     Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence – “Body-Movement Smart”

2.     Existential Intelligence – “Life Smart”

3.     Interpersonal Intelligence – “People Smart”

4.     Intrapersonal Intelligence – “Self Smart”

5.     Linguistic-Verbal Intelligence – “Word Smart”

6.     Logical-Mathematical Intelligence – “Number/Reasoning Smart”

7.     Musical Intelligence – “Sound Smart”

8.     Naturalistic Intelligence – “Nature Smart”

9.     Spatial Intelligence – “Picture Smart”.

Mr Gardner’s MI theory, now accepted worldwide, is telling us teachers that there are at least 9 kinds of learners, each of them with their own intelligence or smart. Thus, if a learner is weak in numbers, it doesn’t mean s/he’s stupid – the teacher has to allow each learner to discover her/his talent among the 9 intelligences or smarts.

Today, a secondary or college teacher gives an objective-type test – s/he is measuring only logical-mathematical intelligence.

If the teacher employs Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences? Not one learner will be unhappily labelled “bobo” or “boba” (dull) – to each one’s special intelligence. With MI, all learners will live happily ever after!@517