Was it ever cool to be smart? Highly educated : yes. Dumb : accepted. Stupid : cool. But smart? Ever? Was it? But first let me address
what you're probably wondering. What's the difference between smart and highly educated? A lot. I won’t give you my definition. But remember, the first person to give out a degree didn’t have one. And George W. Bush graduated from Yale. Let's just say I know a lot of highly educated people. But I don't know many smart ones.
I look, listen and can’t help but ask the question that many of us think, but fearing challenges to our own intelligence, dare not put forth, WHERE HAVE ALL OF THE SMART PEOPLE GONE? I said it. Now go ahead, ask me if I know the capital of Islamabad?
I don’t.
Have you ever known people who pleasure themselves in asking things like this? While the rest of us are like ‘WHAT?’
But don’t feel dumb if you don’t know the capital of Islamabad.
Islamabad is not a country. Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan. The reason that I know this is because one of my highly educated and very smart role models was from Pakistan and foreign policy—which may sound like something for the highly educated—and I began a relationship in middle school.
So now, as I (through Girl Scouts (GS) the USA) work with middle school aged girls in the Bronx—I’m often left feeling stupid—but in a good way. Their topics of discussion almost always involve some famous entertainer/someone famous for being famous. I’m always the odd girl out (some things never change).
My Scouts say, “Ms. Danielle doesn’t have TV?” They ask, “How do you live without TV?”
I answer, “I don’t have a radio either.”
“AGH” they sigh. “That’s crazy!” "I can't live without TV." “You need to get some Cable!"—And then, like little paid advertisements, they start singing a vowel song from a commercial advertisement for digital cable …” I-O (?)
One day last year one of my GS went around the classroom showing off a newly received text message to her girlfriends—I noticed (knowing the history of this particular young lady) them coo'ing and giving each other the eye and I turned to all of them and said, “ I hope that you aren’t giving away anything you can not get back.”
Then one of her friends looks up and says, “Ms. Danielle you’re really smart to be a virgin.” “Right!” echoes another.“Ms. Danielle be saying some stuff!”
What?
Did I miss a MTV News report—Sex has been linked with smart? Surely everyone who text me to say that fellatio has been linked with throat cancer would’ve sent me one to say sex has been linked with intelligence… I'll have to find more on this :)
Meanwhile, I’m finding that "smart" is not on the priority list at this age for many of our girls. Too many. Open your window, turn on your TV (never thought I'd find myself saying that). Who desires to be smart when so much attention is paid to pretty and so much money is paid to graduate schools?
“Although people are going to school more and more years, there’s no evidence that they know more,” says “The Age of American Unreason” author Susan Jacoby in a recent NYT article titled “Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?”
I have tête-à-têtes with my Scouts, getting the goods on pop culture, their take on the world and am finding that smart isn’t cool. Smart is not what’s being promoted. Smart has no corporate sponsorship. Smart has no appealing face. Smart is irrelevant. Smart is only cool in this age when “street” precedes it...or so it seems.
One day after a chat about Divine, a Ghanaian Fair trade chocolate supplier , one of my favorite 7th graders says, “Ms. Danielle’s always trying to make us smart!”
“What’s the alternative,” I quip.
She had to think.
As for me, I’ve been thinking and thinking working and working planning and planning committing the plans to God, and I keep committing them to God, sometimes I think God must think I’m dumb—like “Danielle, from where (who) do you think these plans have come?”
Yesterday as sure as I type these words I had a moment, I was typing and all of these ideas came rushing at me, I just collapsed back on my bed looked up and said, “LORD HAVE MERCY, GOD.
WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?”
(I'll relay THE answer in the next post) As for now, PEACE IN THE NYC!
And HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
In remembrance:
what you're probably wondering. What's the difference between smart and highly educated? A lot. I won’t give you my definition. But remember, the first person to give out a degree didn’t have one. And George W. Bush graduated from Yale. Let's just say I know a lot of highly educated people. But I don't know many smart ones.
I look, listen and can’t help but ask the question that many of us think, but fearing challenges to our own intelligence, dare not put forth, WHERE HAVE ALL OF THE SMART PEOPLE GONE? I said it. Now go ahead, ask me if I know the capital of Islamabad?
I don’t.
Have you ever known people who pleasure themselves in asking things like this? While the rest of us are like ‘WHAT?’
But don’t feel dumb if you don’t know the capital of Islamabad.
Islamabad is not a country. Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan. The reason that I know this is because one of my highly educated and very smart role models was from Pakistan and foreign policy—which may sound like something for the highly educated—and I began a relationship in middle school.
So now, as I (through Girl Scouts (GS) the USA) work with middle school aged girls in the Bronx—I’m often left feeling stupid—but in a good way. Their topics of discussion almost always involve some famous entertainer/someone famous for being famous. I’m always the odd girl out (some things never change).
My Scouts say, “Ms. Danielle doesn’t have TV?” They ask, “How do you live without TV?”
I answer, “I don’t have a radio either.”
“AGH” they sigh. “That’s crazy!” "I can't live without TV." “You need to get some Cable!"—And then, like little paid advertisements, they start singing a vowel song from a commercial advertisement for digital cable …” I-O (?)
One day last year one of my GS went around the classroom showing off a newly received text message to her girlfriends—I noticed (knowing the history of this particular young lady) them coo'ing and giving each other the eye and I turned to all of them and said, “ I hope that you aren’t giving away anything you can not get back.”
Then one of her friends looks up and says, “Ms. Danielle you’re really smart to be a virgin.” “Right!” echoes another.“Ms. Danielle be saying some stuff!”
What?
Did I miss a MTV News report—Sex has been linked with smart? Surely everyone who text me to say that fellatio has been linked with throat cancer would’ve sent me one to say sex has been linked with intelligence… I'll have to find more on this :)
Meanwhile, I’m finding that "smart" is not on the priority list at this age for many of our girls. Too many. Open your window, turn on your TV (never thought I'd find myself saying that). Who desires to be smart when so much attention is paid to pretty and so much money is paid to graduate schools?
“Although people are going to school more and more years, there’s no evidence that they know more,” says “The Age of American Unreason” author Susan Jacoby in a recent NYT article titled “Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?”
I have tête-à-têtes with my Scouts, getting the goods on pop culture, their take on the world and am finding that smart isn’t cool. Smart is not what’s being promoted. Smart has no corporate sponsorship. Smart has no appealing face. Smart is irrelevant. Smart is only cool in this age when “street” precedes it...or so it seems.
One day after a chat about Divine, a Ghanaian Fair trade chocolate supplier , one of my favorite 7th graders says, “Ms. Danielle’s always trying to make us smart!”
“What’s the alternative,” I quip.
She had to think.
As for me, I’ve been thinking and thinking working and working planning and planning committing the plans to God, and I keep committing them to God, sometimes I think God must think I’m dumb—like “Danielle, from where (who) do you think these plans have come?”
Yesterday as sure as I type these words I had a moment, I was typing and all of these ideas came rushing at me, I just collapsed back on my bed looked up and said, “LORD HAVE MERCY, GOD.
WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?”
(I'll relay THE answer in the next post) As for now, PEACE IN THE NYC!
And HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
In remembrance:
1 comment:
I've never thought about the distinction between smart and highly education. I want to be both...
CHECK ME OUT:
http://yourhunterboy.blogspot.com/
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