When somebody tells me I'm smart, though, that kind of flippant remark makes me very angry. It may seem very complimentary, on the complimenter's side, but what exactly does it mean to be on the other side?
For me, personally, as I've said, I'm angry. I'm annoyed. It's like pigeonholing me with a single word, reducing me to a single aspect that implies I have no depth beyond understanding what goes on in class. It's like, Wow, it must be great, to be soooo smart. Except for, of course, the stereotypical schoolyard bullying and lacking adequate social skills.
If you wanna try and treat me like Millhouse, I'll eat you.
Image via HiddenGlasgow.
I am decidedly not your stereotypical 'smart kid.' I'm a pretty normal kid who interacts pretty well within society, and what really sucks the most about being smart is just that--in school (K-12 for the purposes of my commentary), being smart meant I was rarely challenged by schoolwork and I could get by relying, more or less, on my short-term memory or natural sponge-like quality for absorbing information passively. On the rare occasion I had to study for a subject--'studying' being defined for my peers as poring laboriously over notes taken in class in addition to amending the notes handed out by a teacher--'studying' for me meant sleepily flipping through the notes handed out the ten minutes before I sat down for an exam and got somewhere in the 90s, no sweat.
Seems great, right? Less time studying, better results than 90% of the other students and more time to lounge around and do anything I wanted... but no, being smart has backfired, and no, it may not be as saddening or heartbreaking as those who don't have the opportunity or the cognitive potential for a great education, but it stinks to be smart.
For the smart kids, but not genius-level students, average schoolwork is still not challenging enough such skills as perseverance and focus, such skills that are a). important for life in general, and b). really, really hard to develop nowadays, regardless of intelligence level, a long attention span when the television, the cell phone, the Internet are all calling out simultaneously. Instead of actively working to develop study skills and learning to apply oneself at the time where the mind is most fertile for learning, I didn't.
In college, this has definitely bit me in the ass. Focus, yes, should largely be on improving opportunities for the under-privileged to get the education they need, but don't forget about the students who aren't being adequately challenged by school-material and are floating by in life, because that's not preparing them for the future either.
I think every "smart kid" goes through the same thing, including the whole realizing you're not like the other "smart kids." Most genuinely smart people end up well adjusted and sociable, not math-obsessed nerds. Anyways, I'd rather be good with people x1000 than have an IQ over 130. Much more useful.
ReplyDeleteAlso I figured out really quickly how to half-ass through college the same way as through high school, so I expect you should too. Nothing sweeter than that 89.6% (or equiv) and now I have more free time than ever!
most of us just breeze through HS cuz it's too easy, but college is harder. So some of those smart kids in college can't adapt because they lack the work ethic, but there are many smart people who work hard and therefore get just as much, if not more, than their peers.
ReplyDeleteTo sum it up, I think its awesome to be smart(unless you get cocky and slack off ehh that's a diff story), you just gotta work as hard as everyone else, but in the end, you still get good grades. :)