"Everyone has intelligence, we ask not 'How much?' but, more importantly, 'What kind?'"
Dr Mary N. Meeker (1921–2003), was an American educational psychologist and entrepreneur. She is best known for her applying J.P. Guilford's Structure of Intellect theory (SI) of human intelligence to the field of education. Meeker called her application of Guilford's theory SOI. The SOI model is designed to address learning disabilities in stages. An SOI test assesses the individual's underlying intellectual abilities, including the constituent abilities enabling performance of the targeted task. Then, after the individual's SOI profile is compared against the intellectual abilities that enable the targeted task (such as reading or arithmetic), specific intellectual abilities are identified for remediation. Finally, SOI curriculum materials train the identified abilities so that, after the abilities are re-mediated, the individual may learn to perform the more complex task. SOI has been related to the multiple intelligences theory promulgated by Howard Gardner.
Mary founded the SOI Institute for testing and training of children's intelligence in 1969. She touched thousands of people's lives worldwide because she believed that all children have intelligence and that it can be trained. She was a professor at USC, Loyola-Marymount and Cal State Northridge. She served as a distinguished professor lecturing at Harvard, the University of British Columbia and Toronto, and the University of Belgium. She was perhaps best known as a contributor, and as a board member for 10 years, to the National Association for Gifted Children. A member of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Meeker was awarded Education Leader of the Year in 1981. She was selected by the U.S. Office of Education as one of the five social scientists whose work held promise for education in the next century. In 2003, she was selected by the International Center for Studies in Creativity as one of the 50 most creative professional women in America.
Dr. Meeker became a water colorist in her early '70's.
Book to read: The structure of Intellect: its interpretation and uses (1969)
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