Gardner to Speak As Part of Millard Fillmore College's 75th Anniversary Celebration

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Howard Gardner is a MacArthur Foundation fellow, an award-winning scientist and one of the most provocative theorists in the fields of social psychology and education today.

He also has something in common with the University at Buffalo's Millard Fillmore College (MFC) -- a dedication to the belief that education is a creative, lifelong process that often is delightful, frightening, astonishing and can take unexpected and extraordinary directions.

Millard Fillmore College, in cooperation with the Creative Education Foundation and with support from the Baird Foundation, will present a free public lecture by Gardner in honor of its 75th anniversary, which will be celebrated during the 1998-99 academic year. His talk, "Leadership in Today's World," will examine the findings of his long-term empirical study of the values that guide "cutting-edge" professional work in our era of rapid change. It will take place at 2 p.m. on June 21 in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

A psychologist, neurologist and educator, Gardner is on the faculties of Harvard University and the Boston University School of Medicine. He also has a long-term involvement with Harvard's "Project Zero," a research group in human cognition that has a special focus on the arts.

Gardner's 1983 book, "Frames of Mind," introduced his theory of multiple intelligence. His hypotheses have since been validated by 25 years of classroom research and have had a major impact on teaching practices across the country. His relentless drive to understand and nurture human intellectual potential is marked by the use of creative giants as role models to inspire and guide the rest of us to work at reaching our individual potential.

To this end, he has trolled the lives of such intellectual and artistic luminaries as Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham and Ghandi to uncover the ways in which they made the creative principle manifest in their lives.

He is the author of 15 books and hundreds of articles on such issues as effective learning, and the qualities of mind common to great leaders. He is the proponent of an approach to education that holds that students of all ages in any field learn best when their unique and individual strengths are recognized.

Gardner's is an approach shared by George Lopos, dean of Millard Fillmore College, who said that the college has long served those who recognize that learning does not end at the high school or college door. Lopos cited the hundreds of veterans, older adults and others of many and varied experiences who have enriched and enlightened the classrooms of MFC with experiences and perspectives not familiar to many students.

Millard Fillmore College, named after UB's first chancellor, has a long tradition of service to lifelong education. The college has its roots in the university's evening division, which was founded in 1923 to provide for the educational needs of men and women seeking further study in academic or professional fields, but who could not attend classes during the day.

This remains MFC's principal service orientation, although it continues to expand its mission in response to the needs of its students and the community it serves. The college has helped thousands of students of all ages achieve their educational goals, whether an academic degree, professional enhancement or personal enrichment. This year, according to MFC Assistant Dean Larry Gingrich, the college hopes to locate many of its alumni and bring them back to campus to be a part of its 75th anniversary celebration.