When Learning Hurts By John Gardner

While Gardner’s “Human Intelligence Isnt’t What We Think It Is” and Shatzaman’s “When Learning Hurts” are both well written and make some very valid points, each time I read them I find myself agreeing more and more with points that Gardner makes. More than anything, the reason why Gardner’s points are much easier to agree with is because I can relate to them on a personal level. As Gardner puts it, ones intelligence can’t solely be measured through test scores. During my academic career, I haven’t always been the student to receive the highest GPA or test scores, but I have the “two forms of personal intelligence”(810) that have allowed me, and will allow me, to be very successful in life. Gardener even himself states, “… in the near feature

I think that linguistic will be much less crucial… and intrapersonal intelligence will be important…”(811). The world we live in isn’t black and while, there is always a shade of gray and as a society its something we need to take into consideration, when we start talking about an individual’s intelligence level.
However, when it came to what Shatzman had to say about learning and it process, I found myself constantly arguing with him while I read his article. When Shatzman saying that learning is painful “because it involves encountering that which is not already known” (144) is absurd. Learning should never be described by anyone as a painful on, but more as something that is meant to be challenging and provide students new thoughts, idea and different perceptive of the world around them. At the college level more than ever students shouldn’t need to take classes that they view as painful due to a requirement. As a public health major, I understand why I needed to take a class such as phycology, but to make me take a class such as art history, would be to me “painful” as I lack interest in the subject and have no future aspirations where that class may be beneficial in anyway. I do agree with Shatzman that students will miss out on opportunities and maturation if they avoid difficult or challenging experiences, but to say these experiences should be at times painful, really frustrates me.