Wayne GretzkyZORAN MILICH
Note: Additional Saturday letters have been published in The Globe's new Talking Point feature.
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The genius of 99
We could add Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983) to the references about Wayne Gretzky's genius level of kinesthetic intelligence (Top Athletes Have Special Form Of Intelligence – Life, Feb. 1) – an ability to visualize action so well that he can foresee patterns of pucks and players and move accordingly.
Sculptors and dentists are gifted with spatial intelligence, being able to think three-dimensionally. Writers have verbal intelligence. Adept mathemeticians have numerical intelligence. Musicians have an aural intelligence. Mr. Gardner proposed other intelligences as well.
All of us have these intelligences to some degree or another. Most of us have a dominant one that inspires our thinking and feeling. Some of us – such as Wayne Gretzky – have one intelligence at a genius level.
Dr. Jane Coryell, Oakville, Ont.
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Immersion radicals
Your story about the growth of French immersion across Canada (Numbers Rise As Second Generation Enters Stream – Jan. 29) was music to the ears of parents who started sending children to immersion 30 or 40 years ago.
Then, we were called "radicals," "traitors to English Canada" and "misguided missionaries." So-called experts claimed our children wouldn't be able to speak English. Many school boards refused to try it. Our supporters were few. But we were a passionate bunch. We didn't take no, or even maybe, for an answer.
An equally significant trend has been the growing number of language schools specifically for French minority communities across Canada. Their success adds to the diversity of the country and complements the desire of English-speaking children and their parents to strengthen both official languages.
Stewart Goodings, Comox, B.C.
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Ignore the leashists
As another neighbour of Leash Lady (My Neighbour Walks Her Girlfriend On A Leash – Life, Feb. 1), I would like to tell her to keep her head up and ignore some of the narrow minds on our street. It takes all kinds to make up a city, busybodies included.
The statement "I don't want to explain it to my child" has been used to complain about everything from short skirts to homosexuality.
David Smith, Toronto