3rd April 2019
I am grateful for whatever friendships Rai has formed both here and in Sri Lanka although she is often bewildered by the transient nature of her relationships with her classmates. Although this is perfectly normal in the early teens due to the hormones rampaging through their bloodstream, Rai is finding adolescence quite challenging at the moment in relation to her peer group.
According to Howard Gardner’s ‘Multiple Intelligences Theory’, kids are born with several different kinds of intelligences – he identified 8 of them – but subsequently they have added one more. So according to his theory, Jordan and Rai have completely different intelligences. He possesses kinesthetic, extroverted, musical & naturalistic intelligences while she has an introverted, visual/spatial (artistic) intelligence. However, they both seem to share a verbal/linguistic intelligence (thank goodness!) that helps them in their academic work because of their natural ability in language learning.
Due to their different kinds of intelligences, Jordan is really adept at socialising and can basically go out anywhere and make friends with anyone. However, because he gets energy by being with other people, he is not good at solitary pursuits like studying for exams.
Rai, on the other hand, has excellent inner resources and enjoys her own company, entertaining herself for hours on end reading, writing, drawing, painting and, needless to say, has developed good study habits. She, however, finds it hard to form and maintain friendships with peers.