By Alan Bierschbach, Annette Edison, Robert Gill,

Brenda Hauff, & Michelle Mehlberg

This chapter of the book deals as the introduction to the content of the entire book. It poses the question: Of the billions of people who have walked the earth in the past thousands of years, why have so few left their mark on everyone and not just the people within their close circle. Those people who do stand out are remembered in four different classifications: creativity; innovativeness; insightiveness; and ability to affect others.

The question is asked "Why". Why are those people who leave a mark after they are long gone remembered for what they did? They were born no differently than anyone else. Why do we raise them up for what they did and still question their actions? Even though these people are famous around the world, we can apply these same questions to those people and students in our midst that we interact with everyday. We work with students who are gifted in some academic areas, while struggling in others. We work with those who are gifted musically or athletically. What makes them different from the "average" student or person? Garden suggests that for every person who excels at something, there is someone else out there with the potential to do the same but does not for whatever reason. We are educators have to help the student discover what is extraordinary about themselves and capitalize upon it.

Garden suggests that there are four building blocks of extraordinariness that exist within all human beings:

Persons: Everyone is a person with physical, emotional and mental characteristics.

Nonhuman Physical Objects: These are those things that surround in our everyday life – from chairs to trees.

Symbolic Entities: We as humans like to make sense of symbols – gestures, pictures, words, numbers etc. These symbols can be materialistic or more abstract such as the spoken word.

Developmental Processes: The author suggests that from the moment of conception, the embryo is affected by the physiological conditions of the womb and forever after is affected by the environment that surrounds it. The human being is not a clean slate, but one that will go through specific cognitive, affective and physiological stages.

We need to examine the relationship of these four building blocks within extraordinary people as well as the ordinary person in order to understand how to help our students excel.

There are four forms of extraordinariness that our students might exhibit: The first of which is a Master. A master is a person who conquers a subject area. Mozart is an example of a master – a master of music. The second is a Maker. A maker is one who may have mastered existing domains and goes onto create a new one. Freud is an example of a maker – he created the domain of psychoanalysis. The third type of extraordinariness that our students might experience is that of an Introspector: An introspector examines themselves internally – fears, highlights, inner self. Woolf is an example of an introspector as evidenced by her diaries and novels. The final form is an Influencer: This person influences others in the way they thinking. Ghandi is an example of an influencer. It is important to remember when looking at these four types, that a person can be a combination of them. Also there is not a line that divides the characteristics of each. Although we are not all extraordinary, we have the potential to somewhat conquer each of the forms of extraordinariness. We can master a domain, we can vary that domain, and we can reflect upon ourselves and influence other people. The following chapters deal with how we as individuals can capitalize upon this concept and become extraordinary in our own right.

As we think about teaching and learning in the information age, it is important to remember those four building blocks that each person encounters, whether extraordinary or ordinary, and their relationship to each other within each human being. Once we understand how these building blocks "push" or "pull" our students, we will have a better understanding in how to help them realize their full potential and become extraordinary in their own right.

This chapter covered the development of an ordinary individual and their experiences with people, objects and symbols. Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget are two scholars of human development. Much of our knowledge of this subject is based on their research. Freud focused his research on an individual’s relationships with others: while Piaget’s research concerned childhood development and the influence of objects. Both individual’s theories focus on the general development of an ordinary individual.

All humans go through several stages of development in which they have experiences with other persons, objects, and symbol systems. Initially, in infancy, an individual experiences relationships with a caretaker, and then with other peers after a time. They progress to manipulating objects, and finally to the development of a meaningful relationship with symbol systems.

One of the first differences noticed in early development is that not all children progress at the same rate. In fact in early childhood intellectual strengths and weakness can already be observed. As educators we should take advantage of these strengths from the moment they enter the educational system. For the most part schools are not set up to take advantage of these strengths and weaknesses. Right now schools are set up almost exclusively for students to work creating or decoding symbol systems. This works to the benefit of those students with strength in linguistics and logic, but not for students with strengths in other domains.

As an alternative, perhaps an apprenticeship format would play to the strengths of some students. By working with a mentor in a particular domain, an individual could become an expert through practice. "Only practice separates the ordinary from the extraordinary." (Gardner, 1997) Perhaps an apprentice format would offer more students the opportunity to succeed.

"Intelligence is the ability to find and solve problems and create products of value in one's own culture." (Gardner, 1997) In the past intelligence has been measured by paper and pencil tests. The tests provided an IQ number or rating of intelligence. These tests ask the question, "Are you smart?" Howard Gardner says intelligence is universal. We all have intelligence, but each of us has different degrees of intelligence in different domains. Gardner’s position is that we should be asking, "How are you smart?" When we examine geniuses, we wonder how these individuals are different from the rest of us if we all possess intelligence. Can I become a genius? Geniuses as individuals had an easy time learning things in their domain, for example a musical genius. But the ease of learning was not all that made them extraordinary individuals. "They’re made in part by their ambition, in part by their times, in part by luck, and in part by where the particular domain is at a historical moment." (Gardner, 1997)

What, I as a teacher can take from this is that I need to understand my students strengths and weaknesses. A student’s individual differences can be observed in childhood. I need to be able to use the student’s multiple intelligences as a tool in the learning process. By understanding the strengths in the various domains I can better understand my students. This will help me change my instruction for the better.

This chapter discusses the life of a Master: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart had two father figures in his life, his father, Leopold, and Franz Joseph Haydn, another great composer 25 years older than Mozart. Both Haydn and Mozart revered each other for their compositional qualities and achievements. Mozart’s father, who was a violinist, teacher and composer, recognized that Mozart had incredible talent at a very young age. By the age of thirteen, Mozart was ready to break away from his father and venture out on his own. Gardner discusses how almost all prodigies, such as Mozart, come to the fork in the road where they have to make a decision. Stay on the straight and narrow path where there is security, or venture on a new path, where no one knows what lies ahead. Mozart chose the new path, and thus is remembered today for his remarkable compositions that were created after the break from his father. Later in his life, when he was in his thirties, Mozart was not very happy. He had lost his mother, was about to lose his father, and was married to a woman who wasn’t really his first choice. He was also not getting the admiration from the courts as much as he would have wished. In spite of this, he continued to turn out outstanding works, which are still revered today.

Mozart was a prodigy that chose the fork in the road most people do not take. He could have lived the pampered life composing music for a court, but chose to generate new compositions of superior quality in his genre. As teachers, we would love to produce a Mozart, but we also like our students to conform to a certain set of standards. If students try to become individuals, we make them get back in line. When we teach this way, we may never discover a Mozart or an Einstein when they are right in our midst. Certain individuals get ridiculed if they act differently compared to the norm. Only a rare individual, who can perform "outside the box" and who can be strong enough to withstand any ridicule from others, can become an extraordinary individual.

In Chapter 5, Gardner moves on to the second of his four forms of extraordinariness. He centered on Sigmund Freud, the famed psychologist from Vienna, Austria. He developed a belief that in the mind there existed the unconscious. He also believed in experiences early in like shaped the psychology of a person later in life, and that the root of the disorders were from sexual abuse. While his ideas were shunned early in his career as a psychologist, they were admired during his later years. Freud was a very bright student, so he was a scholastic prodigy, as compared to Mozart, who was a musical prodigy. It took him many years to figure out what he really wanted to do in life. He would have liked to be in the military, but a Jew could not go very far there. He decided to be a physician and focused on neurology. Freud worked with various doctors and studied various forms of hysteria at length. He was only a marginal neurologist, thus he forged into his new domain of psychoanalysis. Gardner goes on to compare regularities in the lives of other Makers to the life of Freud. The early years have a common thread with Freud and the Makers. He lived near a major city of his domain, and practiced there in his domain. Others shunned him, so he spent much time alone like the other Makers. Unlike other makers, his parents were around for quite a bit of his life. Gardner comments that every 10 years or so, a Maker has an innovation, and then is isolated. They sacrifice everything for their work. Freud followed in this pattern. Garner compares Masters and Makers. Masters chose a domain and stay in it pushing that domain to new heights. Makers move in different directions to tackle issues that are invisible to others. According to Gardner, Freud had three motivations: pleasure in classifying, a lust for problem solving, and a passion for system building. Freud always believed in himself, even though others were skeptical.

Makers form their own domain. They are the true pioneers in their field. We do not often come upon a maker, especially one of the magnitude Sigmund Freud. In the world of technology, a maker could be the person who developed the Pentium processor, or the person who first developed a Windows format. In some respect, Bill Gates could be considered a Maker, for all that he has done with software at the end of the 20^th century. Bill was recognized for his intellect and sent to a special school when he was young. He lived close enough to corporations that used computers that he could get access to them, as schools did not have computers back in 1968. He didn’t do much homework, because he was in front of any computer he could get his hands on day and night. Computers consumed him. He developed software that has had an effect on all of us. Bill Gates is a modern day Maker.

I looked up introspection in the thesaurus, and the best description included intrinsic, natural, real and genuine, deep in thought, lost in thought, reflective and meditative. The Gardner book’s definition was – "one who peers inward, seeking to understand themselves as individuals, men, women or human beings."

Her deepest interest laid in the nature of experiences- her own as Virginia Stephen Woolf, and the experiences of those to whom she was closest, both men and women. Example of these experiences would be- what is like to be conscious, to be joyful, or to be mad. In regards to mad, Virginia spoke and wrote readily about her desire to be sane, and that her writing was a means of maintaining her sanity. She was preoccupied with suicide from her youth, and fulfilled that endeavor in the end.

She was once quoted as saying "give me no illness for a year, two years, and I could write thee novels straight off. She also said that she was ashamed, or perhaps proud, to say how much of her time was spent on thinking about literature. "I doubt whether anything else in life is much worth having." I think, since may of us have chosen to be educators, we need to look first inward and seek an understanding of ourselves. Then we can better teach our students as individuals. Not all students will fit into a preconceived mold. Let them use their own creativity and God given talent to achieve their goals.

Ghandi was a model influencer in that he had the strong trait of challenging authority, even at a young age.

Influencers like taking risks, and those risks usually pay off. They are sincere and believe that they can significantly contribute to the resolution of a current situation or problem. Ghandi was a true exemplary influencer who fought for India's working class through the use of peaceful resistance and protest. He later was put in jail because one his protest

got out of hand. He eventually was killed by people he was trying to free.

How does this relate to learning and teaching...I was surprised to find that exemplary influencers are not particularly gifted in discipline study, and like to challenge authority. These are the kind of students that we hope transfer to a different state! If we can figure out how to motivate them with the vast amount of information that we have at our control through technology, who know what some of them could become.

Three characteristics or distinctions discussed by the author. The first an interest in your domain and the society around us. How they differ and how they connect.

Second an individual stance on revolution and domain. And lastly, concern with creativity and other forms of extraordinary with in work. All these areas overlap within an individual’s domain, society, culture and family community. The varieties of extraordinariness are as follows according to Gardner, fame, success, spiritual, moral, and deviations. These traits overlap and an extraordinary individual can be more than one variety. The book discusses each of these traits or varieties in more detail, but for our purposes let look at how they impact society today.

"I believe that human beings cannot develop without some sense of possibility, some landmarks by which one can judge one’s growth or stagnation. By definition, we cannot all be extraordinary; but those who are extraordinary can help the rest of us understand our options, perils, and opportunities." (Pg 138) I feel we can take many implementations from this. That we need to look at every individual extraordinary or not and gain knowledge and information from them. Everyone has something to offer. In today’s technical society it is easier than ever to learn from these individuals. From video conferencing with a specialist in an area, to surfing the net, to posting information on the net, to just plain email. All these technological changes and ore are allowing individuals to learn from each other at a greater speed and less limitations than ever before.

There are rewards for being extraordinary- treated as if important; feel that they have made a difference; and prosperity. On the other hand there are costs involved with being extraordinary. First of all a person must have a major commitment and dedication to ones domain and mission. It takes 10 years at a minimum to master something and a person must keep with it long after mastering the subject. An extraordinary person must also be willing to accept pain, rejection and loneliness. Others are jealous of what these people are accomplishing and may shun them. Extraordinary people are not very well understood either, which can lead to being shunned. Although this sounds harsh, it maybe really isn’t so. The person during their younger years maybe did not feel this way – the feelings may have come about due to age and "seasoning" due to the person’s extraordinary conditions. The isolation that they may feel as they during their early years and the demands to keep at that height once there may take their toll on the person.

Some people feel that you can develop yourself or your children into being extraordinary. In our society it may be driven by the fact that as a whole we strive for material success more so than to leave a permanent mark on others. The people who do want to leave a mark may try different techniques in trying to obtain the level they are seeking, whether that be Maker or Master or Influencer or Introspector. They may take workshops in an area, although the author does not believe that they help. Weekend workshops may help to change a person’s attitude toward something, but in no way is enough time involved to make a person a Master, etc. of anything. If students are to develop extraordinariness they must first of all be exposed to extraordinary role models and reflect upon why this role model is extraordinary. They must have opportunities to practice in a relatively safe and non-threatening environment that skill that they are developing. It is important to remember that each individual is unique and may become extraordinary in his or her own way; therefore there is not one clear-cut path or way to extraordinariness.

Although we probably will never reach the heights of Freud or Mozart, there are some lessons that we as ordinary people can learn from them. First of all we can achieve at least the expert level in some domains, whether it be within our work or at something we enjoy. We can vary domains so that they can bring us pleasure and to those that we come into contact with. Secondly, we can introspect deeply about ourselves and the world around us. Through this we can exert positive effect to those around us by these reflections. Third, we need to place high standards upon ourselves and to reflect upon the experiences along the way and learn from these experiences. Discover yourself and what makes you tick. Take a look at your experiences and reflect upon them and what makes you unique. Take lessons from the Masters, the Makers, the Introspectors and the Influencers and become extraordinary in your won right.

Gardner, H., (1997) Extraordinary Minds: Portraits of 4 exceptional individuals and an examination of our own extraordinariness. NT: Basic Books

Gardner, H., (1997) Born or made?

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