[WS:] I am pretty much with you on that. I like the Steinberg piece because he stressed one aspect that is dear to my heart - that there are multiple intelligences not necessarily correlated with one another. That he seems to be peddling an intellectual product as Chuck claims? Maybe, but who does not these days?
Alas, there is one aspect that seems to be missing here - the knowledge-power connection. No matter how intellectually interesting the multiple intelligences theories may be, they are poorly suited for the reproduction and legitimation of inequitable power relations. The fundamental message of these theories is that people have multiple intelligences that cannot be reduced to a single dimension, so it is not possible to arrange them in a hierarchical manner - from top to bottom.
The simplistic tests, on the other hand, allow that - in fact creating hierarchical orders is their raison d'etre. Consequently, they are pushed hard by authority figures and "reformers" whose main concern is the maintenance and legitimation of the hierarchical order in our society rather than finding factually accurate description of human cognitive abilities.
Wojtek