Personal Statement : Being Smart As A Whip

“The Poor Scholar’s Soliloquy” by Stephan M. Cory discusses a boy who’s repeating the seventh grade but his intelligence doesn’t particularly match seventh grade standards. Although each grade has a curriculum, he has his strengths in ways to help in life. Most teachers expect everyone to have everything done the same way, they teach or the book. Although it sounds as if the poor boy scholar is not as smart, but he’s smarter in things that is more “street” smart then book smart. “Street” smart is more the knowledge necessary to know, more common sense. Being good at certain things the boy, is more advanced from working for his father and uncle. For example he wanted in shop, his teacher wouldn’t let him work with metal until he finished woods. School has never been an advantage for the scholar, his father said he could quit school by the age of sixteen but he wants to learn more because he’s not getting any younger.

Do you think intelligence is a fixed trait? If you do, then you might be one of many people with a fixed mind-set. In Carol S. Dweck’s an essay, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”, she describes fixed and growth mind-sets. She describes how they affect school, and how they affect social relationships as well. The two central ideas of “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” are that fixed mind-sets can make a person shy away from a challenge and that growth mind-sets can be put into place by parents.

After reading Seal’s article which stated that Americans often thought kids are born smart while Asians more often believed that studying makes a person smarter, I was reminded my own personal beliefs on intelligence and I realized that I have thought people could get smart by exerting effort since I was in the last year of elementary school in Vietnam. Therefore, I empathized with Seal’s attitude that success and achievement are a result of working hard. I could remember that I got this attitude when I was in an important final exam which decided where my middle school was in the next year that depended on my score. In this exam, the math test was an extremely difficult test for every student because it had a strange math problem which my classmates and I had never studied before. At first, I had spent for 2 hour to solve this problem, but I didn’t succeed. So, I wanted to give up. However, I was worry about my score and thought about my mom, who hoped that I could get the high score enough to enter a famous middle school. Since I didn’t want to disappoint my mom’s wish, I tried to solve this math problem again and again and again. Eventually, I was successful to solve

In Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff, he begins with the argument of “street-smarts” versus “school-smarts”. Graff explains that school-smarts can be hidden within street smarts and can be learnt through not just talking with friends, but also from the media and our surroundings, hence the “hidden” intellectualism. He goes onto explain that “schools and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street-smarts” (198) because these types of intellectualism are actually considered anti-intellectualism. Graff then begins to discuss that intellectualism is often looked down upon within schools, and people that are considered “school-smart” are seen as nerdy, or boring. We learn that as a child, Graff was afraid of bullying and

Most people, when asked, say that a person is intelligent if they have “book smarts.” People that are book smart can write and converse about subjects taught in school. On the other hand, people with “street smarts” aren’t seen as intellectuals because the subjects they are knowledgeable about are not traditional. In his essay called “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff insists that schools and colleges are missing an opportunity to translate street smarts into academic work.

“Hidden Intellectualism” an article written by Gerald Graff is a very interesting piece of writing intended for the audience of high school and college educators. Throughout the text Graff argues that high schools and colleges are failing to incorporate topics that interest street smart students into the school system, which is therefore resulting in street smart students failing to do well academically in high school and college. He uses his own personal anecdote to support this. Graff successfully persuades his audience that high school and colleges can develop a student’s intellectualism by using topics that already interests students. He successfully does this through the use of development, conventions, and evidence.

Being a smart kid is an honor to most, but as a child, Mark Bowden believed otherwise. In “The Dumb Kids’ Class” he tells his unique experience in Catholic school, where he was in the dumb kids’ class and then switched into the smart class, and discovers the true differences between them.

I have always had Final Grades being above a B! In fifth grade, I was apart of a handful in having straight A+’s in my whole school! In sixth grade, I was apart of a test to participate in accelerated classes! Today, I am in Algebra I and in seventh grade; the lowest grade I had in this class was a B+, even above some eighth graders. During sixth and fifth grade, I got involved in Math club at Franklin Woods Intermediate, I competed against other kids in other schools, doing eighth and even high school math! I have participated in accelerated Language Arts and Math since fifth grade; I have continued to grow since then! I pride myself in being in advanced classes, many people ask how I got to be really “smart,” I say, “ I listen, speak at a low amount and come to school; I pay attention and ask questions.” Overall, I think that the choices I made, got me here; I really like a quote from Robert Kiyosaki, that was mentioned in one of the books he

Being a smart kid is an honor to most, but as a child Mark Bowden believed otherwise. In “The Dumb Kids’ Class” he tells his unique experience in Catholic school, where he was in the dumb kids’ class and then switched into the smart class, and discovers the true differences between them.

In “Hidden Intellectualism” , Gerald Graff explains his views on the topic of being smart. His explanation was you are either smart in the streets or in the educational system . During Graffs younger days how he hid his intellect during his days so he wouldn't have to deal with any bullying or being labeled as a weird person. He also was scared of a beating if he proved he was smart . Instead of showing he was smart in the educational system, he showed his intellect by arguing about the cool stuff that people conversed about growing up in his rough neighborhood. Graff refers to the cool stuff as in sports. Graff mentions another person who noticed his hidden intellect, Michael Warner. Warner comes from the background of a christian pentecostal

Grant Penrod, a young college student at Arizona State University, shows how rough the “smart kids” have it, in his essay “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids.” In Penrod’s essay, he shows the reader the cruel and unusual punishment that “smart kids” go through. Penrod uses a very calm tone of writing but ramps it up with occasional quotes of hate towards these certain students.

To be book smart or street smart, or is it possible to be both? In the reading, “ Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff, a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, he touches on the subject of being “street smart” but not doing too hot in school. He argues that if students could be as interested in school, and as book smart as they were street smart, then they would have the opportunity to thrive and excel in school all while enjoying it, he even goes on to use himself as an example of taking an anti-intellectual and becoming a great intellectual.

The societies in “The Allegory of the Cave” and “The Giver,” maintain control in similar ways too. In “The Allegory of the Cave” and “The Giver,” the “controllers” both limit the range of experience of the members in the community. “Thus they stay in the same place so that there is only one thing for them to look at: whatever they encounter in front of

The outside of the cave, or the upper world is the intellectual world, the world of ideas. These people are critically appropriating and inquiring into the beliefs and opinions that they have. And they also think about all of the things and have critical assessment about

There are many smart people in the world that do not know how smart they really are. The reason for this is they have not been given the tools in their environment to know their capabilitieswhat they are capable of. While genetics may place some limits on intelligence, there are “views that genius is not inborn, but that outward evidence that genius occurs via practice, persistence, and maybe a little luck ” (Phoenix 1). Studies have been conducted to help high achievers and gifted individuals to reach their full potential. There was a family of three children in the UK who were homeschooled. Their