The Intelligence River

The Voyage So Far

We’re done with theories. Now we ask, So what? How can you use what you've learned? How do you move from theory to practical use? The next several chapters lay the groundwork for the leap from theory to practice by deepening your understanding of the Intelligence River. So what river lore have we picked up so far?

• Your new understanding of the scope of effective intelligence makes a huge difference when you start to think about how to develop your child’s intelligence. Virtually every experience we offer our child can increase intelligence. Many ways to be intelligent means many ways to become intelligent
• Your child’s ability to meet her real-world goals comes from a blend of intelligences flowing together, exerting power through their combined current, not from any one isolated stream of ability.
• If you think about it for a second, you’ll see that there can be no one map of the Intelligence River. Since each child’s abilities combine into a unique flow, there’s really a separate map for each child. And even that map changes as each child grows, and the different tributaries change the relative power of their flow and even their path. The overall map we've imagined shows you the general lay of the land. It doesn’t capture nearly every detail of the river you and your child will explore!

Your Child’s Intelligence River

To the insights above, we can add one as important as it is obvious: It isn’t so very easy to grow steadily towards our uniquely personal way to be intelligent. It’s easy enough to say that every child can develop a confluence of skills and abilities all his own, so his goals, interests, natural inclinations, and personal experiences can flower to their fullest. Unfortunately, that insight is more honored in the breach than in the observance: You won’t find many parents who disagree with it, but you’ll find many who struggle to preserve a vision of their child’s uniqueness in the face of all the forces that work towards homogeneity.

Each child’s Intelligence River is always both being and becoming. At each developmental level, children spend most of their time and effort meeting present goals and addressing present needs — applying their Intelligence River as they have developed it so far, in ways that are appropriate to their developmental level and their current goals. Judith Harris says it well: “A child’s goal is not to become a successful adult.... A child’s goal is to be a successful child.” But each momentary state of your child’s Intelligence River is also preparing her both for the next stage and for eventual adulthood. Adults are future-oriented, children become so only gradually. Our job is to do what we can to help our children develop their Intelligence River both for the present and the future.

We assume, partly on sure knowledge, partly because we must, that we can have a positive influence on the way our children develop. We know our influence is finite — limited by genetic constraints, luck, our own imperfections, and an infinity of environmental factors. But we choose to do the best we can.