Tweeters,

Jerry Converse wrote,

>My unlearned opinion is that we all have those "EIGHT intelligences."
>Only the need or desire to exercise them brings them out.
>
>Example--I know someone that is blind as a result of an accident and he
>said that if he concentrates he can percieve objects in front of him
>when he is walking. I have seen him walk around things that he didn't
>know were there. Also his hearing becomes very acute. In this case there
>was a need.
>
>My wife and I agree that birds were just birds and never really noticed
>or heard them until we started birding. Now we are always watching and
>listening. This is a case of desire.
>
>Way back when I used to hunt, there were many times I would sense that a
>deer was near and sure enough one would be near by.
>
>I believe NEED and or DESIRE is the key to development of these "EIGHT
>intelligences"

I appreciate your comment. And I certainly agree that everyone has the
various forms of intelligence. Have you reason to think that among birders
there are those who are more well-endowed and those who are less
well-endowed by nature with the ability to detect living things in their
environment? Or does the degree of NEED or DESIRE to develop the skills
explain it all sufficiently?

Someone who privately responded directed me to the book, _Kingbird Highway_,
whose author referred to the late Ted Parker as a "superior being" because
he was so far beyond others in his birding abilities. And just today on
Tweeters I'm reading Jack Stephens' praise of his Costa Rica guide Alex, who
seems to have extraordinary abilities. Jack writes,

> At one point we crested a rise in the trail and Alex paused for quite a
long >time, even though there was no bird activity I could appreciate.
Eventually >we walked on, but he asked us to wait and went back to the spot
where we >had just been. Within a couple of minutes he gestured to us to
come up, >there in his scope was a Spectacled Owl! After good long looks we
moved >on, and I asked him why he had gone back. He said something to the
effect >that he just felt like we were missing something at that spot, that
it didn't feel >right to leave. I had gotten used to his extraordinary
ability at finding birds >at this point, but this was getting a little
spooky. I'm not sure where a "sixth >sense" comes from, but there seemed to
be something at work besides good >eyes and ears.

Of course, regardless of the extreme cases, what teachers do daily is
provide many opportunities for each kid to explore and develop (hopefully
all) their abilities so there is at least some minimum level of development
there before the time when NEED or DESIRE kicks in. And, yes, we get a lot
farther if we can *stir up* a little desire in the process.

Darrel Whipple
Rainier, Oregon
dwhipple at columbia-center.org