Book Nerd, Street Geek

We’ve all heard it time and time again, college is the way to reach the light at the end of the tunnel, but is that necessarily true? Well it depends on the person you ask. Someone in college would tell you book smart’s is the way to go. On the other hand, asking a teenager who lives in an area with high gang and criminal activity more than likely will tell you that street smarts are what keep him “above water” every day. Individuals that have book smarts may have a world full of information but without any real life-experience how can that information be applied, because we all know that after college comes the “real world”. What good is knowledge if it’s not applied? Individuals with street smarts are the students of life, which gives the exam first then, the lesson. People with street smarts have the ability react naturally to a situation in society, adapt to different environments and they have a keen sense of situational awareness. Common sense would seem to dictate that having a combination of book and street smarts leads to a successful life, which is why I agree with Gerald Graff, the Author of They Say I Say and his article “Hidden Intellectualism” when he states that incorporating street smarts and book smarts will have a favorable outcome.

First off, let’s define book smarts and street smarts. Being book smart in my own definition means having the ability to regurgitate information that has been continuously drilled into one’s mind, having a certain set of understanding in certain subject matters relating to academics. Street smarts on the other hand, are the ability to adapt to a certain environment or situation in your daily life relating to society and less academically. It’s the ability to have an independent st...

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...ne particular intellect that I possess.

In conclusion, Gerald Graff makes a solid argument in his article “Hidden Intellectualism” by showing the reader that there is more than one way to be intellectual. And by becoming academically inclined while at the same time having street knowledge will lead to a brighter future for the individual. All in all, there is no clear winner when it comes to debating book and street smarts; it’s just a matter of using them in conjunction with one another so you can reach your full potential no matter what the situation may be. So take it upon yourself to become a book nerd and a street geek.

Works Cited

Graff, Gerald. “Hidden Intellectualism”. They Say, I Say. 2nd ed. Ed. Gerald Graff and Kathy Birkenstein. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. 198-205. Print.

Sheehan, Kathleen. Personal Interview, 1 February 2012.