WHILE CRITICIZING the concept of Intelligent Quotient (IQ) as a myth, Howard Gardner feels that IQ score as fixed endowed intelligence reported to student exerts appreciable adverse effect upon his or her future. The future course of student's life gets influenced the way in which some conventional IQ experts think of him or her by determining his or her eligibility for certain privileges.

"The importance attached to the (IQ) number is not entirely inappropriate. After all, the score on an intelligence test does predict one's ability to handle school subjects, though it foretells little of success in later life," informs Gardener.

According to the author, the book suggests the presence of areas in the brain that correspond to certain forms of cognition and use different modes of information processing leading to identification of several human intellectual competences.

Published by New York based BasicBooks publishers, the book is divided into two parts called ' Background' and 'The Theory'. The first part of the book deals with the four topics titled as: The Idea of Multiple Intelligences (MI); Intelligence: Earlier Views; Biological Foundations of Intelligence; and What Is Intelligence.

The second part of the book is useful for teachers and educators who wish to organize their institutions and teaching on the basis of multiple intelligences theory of learning proposed by the author. Topics dealt with in this part are: Linguistic Intelligence; Musical Intelligence; Logical-Mathematical Intelligence; Spatial Intelligence; Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence; The Personal Intelligences. Also in this part two more topics are titled as 'A Critique of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences' and 'The Socialization of Human Intelligences through Symbols'.

On the basis of MI theory, the institutions have been urged not to confront the question of the certainty of knowledge, but, rather, of how knowledge is attained at all. "It is necessary to advance a hypothesis, or a theory, and then to test it. Only as the theory's strengths - and limitations - become known will the plausibility of the original postulation become evident'" observes the author.

The book provides an insight into reorganizing the curricula and lesson transactions to appeal to the multiple intelligences of students. It is worthwhile book for teachers and educators who wish to innovate classroom practices.