It's Not How Smart You Are, But How You Are Smart

 There is a stereotype about what a smart person is like.  Mostly it is based on the ability to memorize certain facts and feed them back to authority figures.  I know a man who didn't stay in school past grade school but later got into college.  His teachers labelled him as dumb but I was amazed at the way he could identify so many different kinds of airplanes, among other bits of information he had at his fingertips.  Schools need to admit that different people learn in different ways and are drawn to learn different things.  All too often students are expected to only learn by sitting on a hard chair and listening to endless words coming out of a teachers mouth.  Memorization is not the end all and be all of education.  I actually asked one of my college professors once a question about his knowledge of History.  He told me that he wasn't sure he understood all that he had lectured on that day.  His lecture was mainly a memorization of what his professor had said when he had been a student in college.  Words passed down but not understood.  Rebel against this nonsense stereotype today.  Accept that you are smart.  Now go away from the label.  Start to explore the ways in which you are smart.  How do you learn?  Good spellers often learn by spelling out the word in a rhythm. Some people like to doodle and diagram and draw pictures to grasp the ideas they are learning.  Some chant.  Some listen.  Some Read.  Some write things out.  Some speak the facts.  Some need to talk new facts over with someone before they get into their brain.  Put on you 'Smart Hat' and explore the ways in which you are smart.