The theory of multiple intelligences urges a rethinking of how teachers should approach subjects and topics. If children do not learn in any one way, then the teacher truly must teach "in the way the child learns." Guided by the very diverse intellectual profiles of students in a classroom, teaching must become less of a single approach aimed at all students and more of a crafted effort to engage the multiple intelligences, or potentials, represented in the room.
In Intelligence Reframed, Gardner identifies "the ready availability of new and flexible technologies" as the "one fact [that] will make individually configured education a reality in [his] lifetime":
Once parents learn that there are indeed several ways to teach most topics and most subjects, affluent families will acquire the materials for home use. And pressures will mount for schools and teachers to have available, say, the "Eight Roads to Pythagorus" or the "Eight Paths to Plato." No more will teachers say, "I taught it well, and she could not learn it." Rather, all involved in education will be motivated to find the ways that will work for this student learning this topic, and the results will be widely available in planning for future work.
Although Gardner describes individually configured education as a future reality, many educators are applying the theory of multiple intelligences in the classroom today.
The theory of multiple intelligences does not point to a single, approved educational approach. Gardner, in fact, is wary of making recommendations. He claims that educators are the ones who are "in the best position to determine whether and to what extent MI theory should guide their practice." The concept of multiple intelligences originated as a psychological theory that focused on "individual differences in strengths and modes of representation." As Gardner states, "there is no direct tie between a scientific theory and a set of educational moves." In any case, when a teacher decides to implement the theory of multiple intelligences in everyday classroom life, he must begin by trying to determine the "intelligences" with which different children learn.