Book Smart Research Paper

1107 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of family background on academic performance

People in this world have many different qualities and skills. There are those who succeed better using their practical skills and those who succeed using their cognitive skills. To succeed in life individuals cannot just memorize their way through life, they need to have social problem solving skills in order to adapt to life’s everyday challenges. Some people may learn by going to school, sitting in a desk, and listening to a teacher. For others who do not use cognitive skills, failing pushes them to work even harder and adapt using other skills to succeed. In order to live up to one’s greatest potential, a person cannot just rely on what was learned in the classroom; rather, everyone needs to experience and learn from the highs and lows …show more content…

They may have a high IQ, but in the real world, being book smart does not mean they will be successful. “IQ tests fall short of the full display of skills that would come under the rubric of good thinking." (Mercola). When book smart students fail to carry their good marks into real world applications and do not reach their expectations, they may not have the strength and perseverance that students with street smarts have. (Tough). Since most book smart students come from families that teach them to succeed only in academics, they would not know how to go about dealing with failure and how to overcome it outside of school. When placed in the real world, book smart people may not do as well as street-smart people due to the lack of skills and life experiences. When applying to university, schools like to know that you are involved with your community and unfortunately, this is where book smarts may fail. In 2009 Mike Baker wrote an article called Admitting Defeat this a quote from the article “In addition to examination results, including interviews, additional entrance tests, non-academic experiences and relevant skills, and the educational context in which they had achieved their qualifications.” (Baker). Book smart students may be getting set up to fail in later life. Without practical skills, book smart people have less of a chance of succeeding in

Show More
Related

  • Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ild, when he would hide and daydream, up until his first years of college, when he would avoid areas that were difficult, the author recognized that there was important link between challenging the student on a meaningful level and the degree to which the student eventually produced. “I felt stupid telling them I was… well – stupid.” (Rose 43) Here, Rose shows an example of how poor preparation and low standards in the classroom can make a student feel inadequate. Indeed, one can see how many things seemingly unrelated do affect a student’s ability to learn.

    Read More

  • Street Smarts vs. Book Smarts in Academia

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Outliers Gladwell Analysis

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    Malcolm Gladwell makes many debatable claims in his book “The Outliers”. One of these controversial topics is brought up in chapter three when he talks about a person’s IQ and how that relates to one’s success. Gladwell says, “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.”After reading “Outliers” I believe that this is the greatest controversial topic. I agree with Malcolm Gladwell because there are a high amount of people who are not incredibly smart that are very successful, success can be viewed differently by different people, and from my own experiences on the U-High

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Tough's 'College Conundrum'

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tough explains their analysis and conclusions, by which he reiterates, “… high school grades reveal much more than mastery of content. They reveal qualities of motivation and perseverance - as well as the presence of good study habits and time management skills - that tell us a great deal about the chances that a student with complete a college program” (Tough 153). As apparent in the above text, non-cognitive abilities such as motivation and perseverance are key predictors to the completion of a college degree. In essence, the researchers suggest that the increase in college dropouts is associated with an absence of these character

    Read More

  • Hidden Intellectualism

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Hidden Intellectualism”, author and professor Gerald Graff describes his idea of what book smarts and streets smarts actually are. He details how new ideas can help to teach and build our educational system into something great and that perhaps street smarts students could be the factor that traditional education is missing that could make it great.

    Read More

  • Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...est high school students in America” (Gladwell 82). It was shocking to learn that all the Nobel Prize in Medicine winners did not all come from the most prestigious schools. Also, in the third chapter I notices some aspects that were highly relatable to me. My life relates to subjects included in chapter three because I am a student. It is interesting and helpful to learn that one does not need the highest IQ to succeed in today’s world. This is how I relate to chapter three. The third chapter in Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell had striking information that stated that IQs do not always determine who will be successful, and I can relate to the information in the chapter because I am student who has thought about my IQ before.

    Read More

  • Gerald Graff Hidden Intellectualism

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Hidden Intellectualism” written by Gerald Graff, is a compelling essay that presents the contradicting sides of “book smarts” and “street smarts” and how these terms tied in to Graff’s life growing up. Graff felt like the school was at fault that the children with more “street smarts” were marked with the reputation of being inadequate in the classroom. Instead of promoting the knowledge of dating, cars, or social cues, the educational system deemed them unnecessary. Gerald Graff thought that “street smarts” could help people with academics. In his essay, Graff confessed that despite his success as an “intellect” now, he was the exact opposite until college. Where he grew up in Chicago, Illinois, intelligence was looked down upon around peers

    Read More

  • Dead Poet's Society

    2001 Words  | 5 Pages

    The students do try to seize their days, both as individuals; bucking the pre-programmed lives that have been laid out for them and as members of ...

    Read More

  • Entry Essay for National Honor Society Inuction

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up, my parents never expected perfection but expected that I try to accomplish my best. The effort I’ve put forth in learning has been reflected in my grades throughout my high school career. I’ve entered myself in vigorous course work such as AP Government and AP English to become well prepared for my college career, all while maintaining a 4.4 grade point average this year. Not only do I engage in AP classes, but up until this year I had no study halls. I wanted my day to be packed full of interesting classes that I would enjoy learning about. My grades and choice of classes prove the effort that I put forth in my learning. Working hard now can only pay off in the future. Learning now creates a well-rounded human being. Working to learn is why I am so dedicated to my studies now.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Becoming A Learner

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    Matthew L. Sanders discusses the necessity of taking responsibility for one’s own education in a section of his book Becoming a Learner: Realizing the Opportunity of Education. In this section, Sanders explains how he initially blamed an instructor for not teaching him sufficiently and then learned that “No matter what kind of teacher you have, no matter what kind of class you are taking, if you are a learner you will set out to understand the material and create opportunities for success.” This statement is true and the concept can be applied through many methods to create success for students if they are willing to put forth effort.

    Read More

  • Gerald Graff Hidden Intellectualism Summary

    468 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gerald Graff’s article criticizes the way schools associate “book smarts” with intellectualism and “street smarts” with anti-intellectualism, offers his own life experiences to counteract this view, and argues how “street smarts” can coincide with intellectualism.

    Read More

  • Why Street Smart Students Are Considered Anti-Intellectual in the Academic Area

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    Street smart students are much smarter than book smart students because of their knowledge and experiences. Author states in the article “I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture not because street smarts are nonintellectual, as we generally suppose, but because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly than school culture, which seems pale and unreal,” which means that street smart students are smarter than book smart students because of their vast amount of information about many things and previous experiences. Author is right about his point that street smart students get more out of their mistakes and learn more from their previous experiences. According to author, street smart students always try to learn from their mistakes where book smart students rely on the books and information from the studies. Book smart students never try to experience the situation of an issue, which gives them biased information and they don’t learn much, where street smart students experience the situation of an issue and learn much more than book smarts. Book smart students are also smart because they learn a lot of information from books and readings also they know how to use that information properly to succeed in academic area, but these students learn very much less from their mistakes and previous experiences to succeed, than street smart students.

    Read More

  • The Portrait of a Professional Teacher

    2304 Words  | 5 Pages

    An effective teacher will excite, inspire and motivate students to be active in their learning, investigate new areas of knowledge and make connections to future learning (Whitton et al 2010). When a teacher is successful, their students are motivated, mutually respectful and ready to build on their knowledge and solve real-world problems. To be a teacher of value, one must have many skills and qualities to cater for a diversity of learners and their individual development; this includes many personal traits that are noticed students.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Intelligence In Education

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Oxford Dictionary defines intelligence as “the ability acquire and apply knowledge and skills.” Many people are born naturally intelligent, able to grasp and understand concepts easily, with little work. In children, it is easy to separate those born with higher intellectual ability from the rest, because they easily excel in learning. This skill is often lost by those born with it, and through a great deal of work others attain it. In order for an individual to have true intelligence into her adult years, she must foster what gifts she is given, and strive to better her self academically. Even as early as elementary school, many who are born with natural talent begin to fall behind intellectually. These students are often not

    Read More

  • My Personal Experience: My Experience As A Student

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    During my time as a student I have been able to develop the way I learn and interact with others to a degree that has also helped me to mature into a better person. I have come to believe that this maturity will help me to develop into a better thinker as well, one that has the patience to listen and take consideration of what others have to say. I consider the act of learning a two way avenue that has to be taken seriously. It is one that involves the teacher, and the protégé. It has been, and will continue to be, my absolute goal as a student to become a diligent protégé and acquire all of learning my teachers have set in front of me. The way each of them have helped me to think about how my actions, and the way I choose to study my lessons and develop as a student, has made a tremendous impact on my life. This impact is one that I will carry into the future as I myself advance in my professional studies.

    Read More

More about Book Smart Research Paper

Open Document