Graff debates the common belief that having book smarts gives one an intellectual advantage over other forms of intellectualism. The stereotype of a street smart person is someone who is intelligent and. There are those who believe in being street smart and those that believe in being book smart. Whereas, street smarts refers to the experiential knowledge on things. However, the underlying idea is that the person deals with situations especially bad or difficult situations from an intellectual d. After reading hidden intellectualism by gerald graff, i have learned, a lot of key points. I definitely believe that you must have both street and book smarts to be the most successful in life. On a saturday morning in december 1973, a section of new yorks west side highway collapsed under the weight of a truck full of asphalt. Street smarts are better because a street smart person can become book smart on their own. Increase your points of reference by tapping into peoples knowledge. Streetsmart definition in the cambridge english dictionary.
When i think about the initiatives or reforms that were seeing across cities, ive started categorizing them along these lines. The a method for hiring a simple 4step method for hiring the right people with a 90% success rate. And that is why being street smart, or streetwise, is the key to success in your startup. However, the term is usually used to contrast and compare with another term known as book smart. This word is succinctly defined as being the knowledge and experience required to handle. Just as useful as book smarts, and in many cases more so. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. While intelligence has been defined in many different ways including as ones capacity for logic, understanding, selfawareness, learning, emotional knowledge, planning, creativity, and problemsolving. Street smarts is a worthwhile business book, and i do recommend this book to anyone interested in entrepreneurial material, however the author played a bit of a deception in the reader. A smart city is a municipality that uses information and communication technologies to increase operational efficiency, share information with the public and improve both the quality of government services and citizen welfare. There are two distinctly different sides to the discussion of which kind of education is better. Most people who are street smart arent very book smart and vice versa. Street smarts definition is the quality of being streetwise.
Apr 22, 2008 what is the real meaning of street smart. Both malcolm x, and gerald graff make very interesting points about street and book smarts. The more extreme and negative stereotypes are that book smart people are naive, easily manipulated, and have bad judgment in bad situations, while street smart people are unintelligent and incapable of achieving a higher education. The general definition of book smart is someone who is intelligent and very well educated. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. But, by far, the most common definition of smart is to be very good at.
Booksmarts as people would define it simply means well read, excelled in. Graff exposes in his essay that intellect goes beyond the academia and scholarly form of thinking, that knowledge can. Book smarts are good, and theyre important for a lot of life situations. The stereotype of a book smart person is someone who is upperclass and well educated but less knowledgeable when it comes to handling important situations faced in bad neighborhoods and lower. Book smart is simply describing that the person as generally intelligent, well educated and do well academically. May 25, 2015 why making kids street smart is a smart choice for parents. Booksmarts as people would define it simply means well read, excelled in school, reads a lot on many subjects, good problem solving skills.
However, street smarts and book smarts completely mean different things. That said, a street smart character by no means must be a poor. Both stereotypes arent always true and any semblance of them are only due to different lifestyles and experiences. Somehow, they naturally know how to navigate the challenging waters of competition at work, in business, and even in relationships. My friends in college who had more street smarts than book smarts were the first to receive job. Tomas chamorropremuzic, editorial advisory board, leadership, learning, talent management, by dr.
Before we look at the ways being street smart is different and in many ways more beneficial than being book smart, we will look at the definition of each. Or, put even another way, tips for the development of a street smart attitude in. The definition heres how the dictionary defines the two street smarts. I really like when graff says, every street smart student has just as much potential as a book smart student, and knowledge does not just come through the classroom, but through everyday experiences. Why you need to be street smart, not book smart better. Mullins, street smart disciplines of successful people that put some meat on the bones of what it means. A portable computer that is smaller than a laptop, with less processing speed and less memory, used primarily for accessing the internet. When i was younger, i used to think that street smart was knowing how to get in trouble effectively. However, the stereotype of a street smart person is someone who is. New initiatives like sensorbased parking and traffic optimization fall into street smart, while streamlining. Street smarts definition of street smarts by merriamwebster.
There are many good career paths that cant be accessed without them. Street smart definition and meaning collins english dictionary. A shrewd ability to survive in a dangerous urban environment. Street smart the psychology of good and bad judgment on november 10, 2015, in dr. There were couple of subjects which he couldnt improve at all even when he was. Streetsmart definition of streetsmart by the free dictionary. May 03, 2014 youre not going to find a tome that helps you to be smarter on the street. Geoff smart and randy street have done an amazing job distilling the best advice from some of the worlds most successful business leaders. Book smart is simply describing that the person as generally intelligent, well educated. Box 28, santa monica, ca 9040728 1200 south hayes street, arlington, va 222025050. In graffs essay, hidden intellectualism, graff compares street smarts to book smarts. Street smarts definition, shrewd awareness of how to survive or succeed in any situation, especially as a result of living or working in a difficult environment, as a city ghetto neighborhood. I respect what graff, and x have to say and agree with them, both book and street smarts are very important.
Definition of street smarts in the idioms dictionary. Oct 07, 2012 thus i was happy to get some help recently from a new book by john a. The world is full of people who are either book smart or street smart. Lustick talk discusses the power of media on learning, and how we can harness this power to increase scientific literacy, especially around the issue of climate change. Being street smart means you have a good environmental or situational understanding. Apr 18, 2011 street smart in the article, hidden intellectualism, gerald graff discusses the topic of book smart versus street smart. My friends in college who had more street smarts than book smarts were the first to receive job offers upon graduating. Information and translations of book smart in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web.
Street smart definition of street smart by the free dictionary. Street smarts vs book smarts, the epic debate continued. Thus i was happy to get some help recently from a new book by john a. Competition, entrepreneurship, and the future of roads is a book about private highways.
Adventures on the road and in the markets kindle edition by rogers, jim. If you dont have street smarts, you wont last long out there. For todays article, i am going to use the term in a slightly different context, with basic urban survival skills and how you can survive in an urban environment by becoming proficient at street smarts. We all go to school and college for education and to increase our prospects of getting a job. These examples are from the cambridge english corpus and from sources on the web. What is the difference between book smart and street smart.
Why being street smart is better than being book smart. Street smart definition of street smart by the free. Definition of streetsmart adjective in oxford advanced learners dictionary. Malcolm x obviously had the street smarts, but like graff he mixed his new book smarts with his street smarts to be successful in life. Proper usage and audio pronunciation plus ipa phonetic transcription of the word street smart. In real life, its harder to say who comes out on top.
On this program we talk about words and expressions that we use in everyda. Common sense for the real world, author gordon meyers talks about how people who are street smart develop a keen sense of situation awareness that affords them a distinct advantage over others as they steer through life, and it all starts at a very young age. Recent examples on the web this small victory displayed burkans strengths. Now, its time for words and their stories from voa learning english. The general definition of street smart is someone who is intelligent, has good common sense, knows how to handle bad situations, and has the skills necessary to function where they live usually the ghetto or the streets. What are some of the best books to develop street smarts. So, when students do well at school and get good grades, we can call them smart. Someone who is street smart knows how to deal with difficult or dangerous situations.
Being street smart means having interest in other activities more than in school work, while being book smart is the complete opposite of that. Book smarts refer to the education, schooling and other kinds of knowledge that one has acquired. Book smart vs street smart essay research paper example. The rise of cities and the fall of cars schwartz, samuel i. Street smart definition and meaning collins english. Book smart people are most successful when expectations are clearlydefined. Streetwise meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. Furlough has featured heavily in uk media recently. Voa special english, words and their stories, book smart or street smart. Synonyms for street smart at with free online thesaurus, antonyms, and definitions. For example, recently, i felt helpless about this colleague who reported to my superior. These street smart people can succeed very well despite their lack of formal training or background. Definition of book smarts the online slang dictionary. Street smart definition, possessing or showing street smarts.
To be street smart means you have situational awareness. Street smarts meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. Definition of booksmart adjective in oxford advanced learners dictionary. Street smarts definition in the cambridge english dictionary. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading street smarts. For many people, there is no difference between smart and intelligent, because the. The general definition of book smart is someone who is intelligent and very well educated academically. This means that they are enabled by computers like a smartphone. The more extreme and negative stereotypes are that street smart people are unintelligent and incapable of achieving a higher education, while book smart people are naive, easily manipulated, and have bad judgment in bad situations. What can we do to increase our hiring success rate. Sometimes, it will seem unfair to book smart people how the street smart ones advance despite their lack of. Increased focus translates into doing more work in less time.
On this program we talk about words and expressions that we use in. Smartbook definition of smartbook by the free dictionary. It solely is a theoretical understanding of facts or ideas. Street smarts over book smarts gerald graff is a professor of english and education in the university of illinois at chicago. However, book smarts are usually limited to how a person applies them to make a living. Graff has brought up a lot of great factors that contribute to the topic of intellectualism, one especially between, book smarts and street smarts. Six street smart urban survival skills survival life. In the beginning he emphasizes that his knowledge of business comes from street smarts, beginning with the lessons he learned on the street from his father. Graff criticizes people who think those who are street smarts are not intellectual. But, by far, the most common definition of smart is to be very good at learning and understanding things. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from rand. However, the term is usually used to contrast and compare with another term known as street smart. On the flip side, being book smart comes from being wellversed with books. Ive known children at 5 be street smarter than me, so dont be.
I believe true definitions lie somewhere between these two, with neither type guilty of. Definition of book smart adjective in oxford advanced learners dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples log in dictionary. We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website, including to provide targeted advertising and track usage. That is in contrast to street smart, which describes the person as having. After all, a street smart but book dumb character might fail a chemistry test, but a book smart and street stupid character may ace the test yet fail to make it out of danger alive without the assistance of their street smart intellectual inferior. While reading gerald graffs essay, hidden intellectualism, graff claims that there are many people in which knows of someone who tends to be vernacular to the point where they are considered to be street smart. There are, for example, many individuals who score poorly on intelligence tests, but are creative or are street smart and therefore have a very good ability to adapt to the. Someone who is intelligent, learns well, and educated very well academically. While which one is more helpful can be a matter of debate and also depends on the context, it is generally seen that street smarts weigh more on the scale when it comes. Geoff smart and randy street have done an amazing job distilling the best advice from some of.
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