Street Smarts vs. Book Smarts in Academia

Our society has always had an obsession with labels whether in the form of fashion, our description of personal relationships, or the way we see ourselves as individuals. Labels never escape us. Therefore, if we are going to be labeled by our peers, is it better to be labeled "book smart" or "street smart"? What about in the world of academics? Should students be supported by schools and teachers to allow street smarts to be used in an academic environment? While some schools are likely to be against allowing students to use what they know to read, write, and think critically, many students and teachers, myself included, judge these techniques of teaching to be helpful to students.

Every person has their own definition of what street smarts means to them. To me, however, having “street smarts” means having the common sense to recognize what to do whenever faced with a problem. Street smarts come from our life experiences. Not only do street smarts come from what we encounter every day, but they also occur through the principles, morals and wisdom passed from generation to generation by our parents, teachers and role models. Street smarts allow a person to meet and overcome a variety of obstacles in the world. Quite the opposite, "book smarts" have virtually a wide-ranging definition. Being book smart suggests an individual is well-informed when it comes to understanding calculations, numbers, academics, etc. Typically, book smart people do well on tests, understand subjects very well, and almost always have their noses stuck inside of a book. I think every person ought to have a fair amount of each quality, if they want to succeed in the world today. In his essay titled “The Purpose of Education”, Martin Luther King sum up my arg...

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...o do what their told to get a passing grade before they can move on to the next class. Some might think this to be unfair, but sometimes life isn’t always fair. I’ve always been told that to get to the fun stuff, I’d have to suffer through the things I might not enjoy as much. As students, we are expected to read and write about topics we may not find to be the most entertaining. But, we should know that having to do so is not meant to hinder us in any way. It’s all meant to help us grow as individuals and to support and prepare us for a stable and successful future.

Works Cited

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say I Say The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.

King Jr., Martin Luther. "The Purpose of Education." The Seattle Times Accessed on September 16, 2011 .