I am.

"Never trust anyone over 30."    - Abbie Hoffman

The Poet Tom Wayman Loses his position on worksheet or page in textbook May speak much but makes little sense Cannot give clear verbal instructions Does not understand what he reads Does not understand what he hears Cannot handle “yes-no” questions Has great difficulty interpreting proverbs Has difficulty recalling what he ate for breakfast, etc. Cannot tell a story from a picture Cannot recognize visual absurdities Has difficulty classifying and categorizing objects Has difficulty retaining such things as addition and subtraction facts, or multiplication tables May recognize a word one day and not the next

I am a poet.  This poem sums up every aspect of me and my learning style.  Although I don't particularly write a truckload of poetry, this poem shows that being a poet is not determined by the kind of writing you do, but by the essence of your personality.  Many of the above things are true for me; I can't tell a story from a picture; I can't handle "yes-no" questions.  When I took the Multiple Intelligence test, my results agreed. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES / TOTAL SCORE  1. MUSIC  36 2. VERBAL/LINGUISTIC 34 3. INTRAPERSONAL 31 4. INTERPERSONAL 27 5. BODILY/KINESTHETIC 25 6. LOGICAL/MATHEMATICAL 23 7. NATURALIST 22 8. VISUAL/SPATIAL 14

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory states that humans all learn in different ways, while the silly No Child Left Behind Act presumes that we all learn the exact same way, putting a lot of pressure on the teacher.  Whoops, I'm getting too political.  Anyway, as I guessed my results would be, one of my highest multiple intelligences was Verbal/Linguistic.  I was pretty sure this would be high on the list because I've always loved writing, English class, wordplay, and learning different languages (I'm almost fluent in French.)  However, I was a little surprised that Music was my highest intelligence, although I love it.  I play jazz, rock, and folk guitar, blues piano, and I sing, but I never considered music one of my learning styles.

When I saw that music was my strongest learning style, all I could think of was the scene from School of Rock when Jack Black is teaching the kids math "through sing-song."  Music is the biggest part of my life, however.  I've played it for 7 years, and I'm currently playing guitar in a jazz band and in a rock band called The Marlboro Kings.

The test indicated that another one of my strongest learning styles was "intrapersonal."  I wasn't surprised at this--although I am a very social person, I work best alone.  Ever since I was little I've been that way--in kindergarden the teacher hated me because I taught myself to read? instead of learning from the teacher in first grade like I was supposed to.  Here's another example: I'm a documentary filmmaker, the only genre of filmmaking where one makes the film entirely by themself--I couldn't stand doing a narrative film, where multiple people (actors, editors, directors, etc.) work together.  I have to do it by myself.

Continue!