Readers unfamiliar with Gardner's work will get a nice explanation here. But others may be disappointed by his failure to debate with his critics, whom he blithely dismisses in a few paragraphs. The theory, a grand refutation of IQ testing, has been embraced by liberals and humanists as a guide for engaging students who might do poorly on standard tests but who shine in music, the visual arts, or even in interpersonal relations. By Gardner's lights, a mediocre student who became a brilliant political leader would, for example, demonstrate exceptional interpersonal intelligence, even though he or she might not be particularly adept at science or music. A mathematician or a chess master who prefers to spend time alone might be less gifted in interpersonal intelligence but highly endowed with the capacity to think strategically.
Many exceptional individuals show talents in more than one area.
A musician, for example, needs not only an understanding of music but also the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence to manipulate the keys on a saxophone or slip the bow across the strings of a violin. Gardner's theory has been broadly influential in psychology, particularly in educational psychology. Intelligence Reframed surveys some of the educational experiments in which MI theory has been put into practice. Gardner acknowledges that MI theory has its share of critics. Among them are some traditionalists, who see Gardner's work as an excuse for lowering standards.