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Intelligences Making Multiple Differences
by Marifel T. Moyano
Haring Ibon Issue 39 | July-September 2009

Where are the Animals in the Rainforest? is a book on endemic Philippine animals. More impressively, it is a publication put together by 2nd grade students of the Multiple Intelligence International School. Mary Joy Canon-Abaquin, the directress of the school and a Haribon member leads her students to take an active role in saving the environment. The publication is just one of the multiple, innovative ways her students have demonstrated their capacity to help Haribon and its advocacy to save the country’s rich biodiversity.

Every year since 2005, she has implemented school-wide awareness about environmental issues and its implications to the future generations. Her pre-school students (5-6 year-olds) established the Rainforest Caf� project where parents, kids and teachers cook up a storm with rainforest-themed goodies like insect and mammal cookies. The Rainforest Caf� have donated proceeds to Haribon since it began in 2005.

“As founding directress of the Multiple Intelligence School, I encourage our students to use their intelligences to make a difference. In particular we give students various opportunities to engage in activities and projects to help support the Philippine environment. Because of this, many projects such as the Rainforest Caf� have been launched to support and raise funds for Haribon.”

Her high schools students on the other hand, have taken their knowledge learned from Haribon’s biodiversity lecture to start campaigns to raise awareness for the country’s endangered animals. MI Kids Can: For Kids, By Kids is an example, wherein each student embarks on a project to come up with a solution for a pressing problem they see through their own initiative to use their intelligences to make a difference.

“I am advocating for our school to be a zero waste campus. We teach our students to reduce, reuse and recycle. We encourage parents and students to green their homes and the campus. Yearly, the students do tree planting in different sites. We are also incorporating policies and systems to encourage the conservation of energy on-campus and the use of renewable energy. We also encourage students to learn about plants through our roof deck garden that features edible, medicinal and flowering plants.”

The Multiple Intelligence International School was founded by Mary Joy fourteen years ago as the pioneering institution in the Philippines that advocates for the Multiple Intelligence framework in education that recognizes that every child has 8 intelligences: linguistic (word smart), logical-math (number smart), spatial (picture smart), naturalist (nature smart), musical (music smart), bodily-kinesthetic (body smart), interpersonal (people smart), intrapersonal (self smart). She took her graduate degree in Education from Boston University and her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of the Philippines. She has two children with her husband Raymond, named Chiara and Anica. She has raised her children to be environmentalist at heart, as they are always very conscious of conserving energy, recycling and their responsibility in conserving the environment.

Mary Joy takes pride in the Philippines’ rich natural resources and biodiversity. For the nation, she hopes that Filipinos will be good stewards of the environment and that lawmakers who are entrusted with the mandate to preserve the environment for future generations be true to their calling.

“The Philippines is blessed with beautiful natural resources and this must be recognized and be put in the map. As an educator, I am very aware of the importance of environmental education. I try to educate the next generation to have the heart, the skill and the will to problem solve issues for the environment. As they say, the youth is the hope of the nation. If the youth is not educated to care about the Philippine environment then there is no hope for addressing environmental concerns that they may face.”

Truly, her progressive institution has dedicated itself to nurturing young environmental leaders that continue to use their intelligence to make a difference now and into their bright future.