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Exercises
The
Different Ways of Being Smart
by
Sara Gilbert
Book
smarts, art smarts, body smarts, street smarts, and people
smarts: These labels describe the various forms of intelligence
and their use. As you might imagine, psychologists and other
researchers into the nature of intelligence have come up with
more formal terms for the types that they have isolated. One
set of labels in common use is: ,
,
,
and .
The converger and assimilator are like our book-smart person;
the diverger, like our art-smart; and the accommodator, like
our street-smart and people-smart.
Whatever categorization we use, we will find
some overlap within any individual. In fact, there are probably
as many answers to the question "What are the different ways
of being smart?" as there are people in the universe, because
each of us is unique. We can't be typecast; we each have a
wide
of special talents.
Still, you probably know well at least one
person whose talents generally fall into each of our categories.
Keep those people in mind as you read through the detailed
descriptions of them.
At first it might seem that each of those
types must call on very different sorts of abilities to be
smart in his or her own ways. But in fact, each of the categories
of intelligence on our list must use the same ingredients:
learning ability, memory, speed, judgment, problem-solving
skill, good use of language and other symbols, and creativity.
Also, the thought processes that go on inside the heads of
people with those varying kinds of smarts include the same
steps: planning, perceiving, imaging, remembering, feeling,
and acting.
Intelligence expresses itself in different
forms, in part because of the differing physical qualities
born and built into each person's body and brain, and in part
because of the values and motivations that each person has
learned.
However, the fact that each kind of smarts
makes use of the same steps means that anyone can learn or
develop skills in any or all of the categories. Let's take
a closer look at the many ways of being smart.
A book-smart person is one who tends to do
well in school, to score high on tests, including intelligence
tests. He
or she is likely to be well-organized, to go about solving
problems in a logical, step-by-step fashion, and to have a
highly developed language ability. Another label
for a book-smart person is "intellectual," meaning someone
who uses the mind more to know than to feel or to control,
and a book-smart person is especially proud of having knowledge.
That knowledge may range from literature through science to
math, but it is probable that it is concentrated in one area.
Research shows that different knowledge areas occupy different
clusters in the brain, so that someone whose connections for
complicated calculations are highly developed may have less
development in the areas controlling speech and writing.
Although as we've said, current research indicates
that learning centers may be scattered throughout both hemispheres
of the brain, the activities of the "logical" left side are
probably most important in the lives of book-smart people.
Book-smart people may also be creative: Many mathematical
or scientific problems could not be solved, for instance,
without creative insights, but the primary focus of a book-smart
person is the increase of knowledge.
Art-smart people, on the other hand, rely
primarily on creativity. They create music, paintings, sculpture,
plays, photographs, or other forms of art often without being
able to explain why or how they chose a particular form or
design. They are said to be "right-brained" people, because
it appears that the control centers for such skills as touch
perception and intuition—the formation of ideas without
the use of words—lie in the right hemisphere. Artistic
people tend to take in knowledge more often by seeing, hearing,
and feeling than by conscientious reading and memorizing.
 An art-smart person may not do too well in school, not because
he or she is not bright, but because of an approach to problem
solving that does not fit in well with the formats usually
used by teachers and tests. A book-smart person might approach
a problem on a math test logically, working step-by-step toward
the right answer, while an art- mart person may simply "know"
the answer without being able to demonstrate the calculations
involved. On a social studies exam, the book- mart person
will carefully recount all the facts, while the more artistic
one may weave stories and fantasies using the facts only as
a base. In both cases, it's a good bet that the book-smart
students will get the higher grade.
People who are serious about becoming artists,
of course, may need to absorb a great deal of "book
knowledge"
in order to develop a solid background for their skills. There
are other overlaps as well: People with great musical ability,
for instance, also tend to be skilled at mathematics, perhaps
because of brain-cell interactions that are common to both
processes. And in order to make use of any talent, art-smart
people must have good body control as well.
The people we're
calling body-smart have a lot of that kind of body control.
Most of them start out with bodies that are well put together
for some kind of athletics—they may have inherited good
muscular development for a sport like football, or loose and
limber joints for gymnastic-style athletics. Or
they may be people whose hands are naturally well coordinated
for performing intricate tasks.
But although the physical basis for their
talent may come from their genes and from especially sensitive
brain centers for motor control, to make use of their "natural"
skills they must be able to observe accurately—to figure
out how a move is made or an object is constructed—and they
must think about how to do it themselves. This thinking involves
a complex use of symbols that enables the brain to "tell"
another part of itself what to do. In other situations, such
as school, a body-smart person is probably best able to learn
through some physical technique: In studying for an exam,
for instance, he
or she will retain information by saying it out loud, acting
out the facts, or counting them off with finger taps.
Although athletes or the manually talented are often teased
as being "dumb" in schoolwork, that is not necessarily an
accurate picture. To be good in using physical talents, a
person must put in a lot of practice, be able to concentrate
intently, and be stubbornly persistent in achieving a goal.
And those qualities of will and self-control can also be put
to good use in more "intellectual" achievements.
Persistence is also an important quality of
street-smart people. They are the ones who are able to see
difficulties as challenges, to turn almost any situation to
advantage for themselves. As young people, they are the ones
who are able to make the most money doing odd jobs, or who
can get free tickets to a concert that others believe is completely
sold out. As adults, they are the business ,
for instance, or the personalities who shoot to stardom no
matter how much or little talent they have. A street-smart
student may do well in the school subjects that he or she
knows count for the most and will all but ignore the rest.
When
taking exams, street-smart people are likely to get better
grades than their knowledge merits because they can "psych
out" the test, and because, when facing a problem
or question they can't answer, they are skilled at putting
on the paper something that looks good.
To be street smart in these ways—to be able
to achieve highly individualistic goals and to be able to
get around obstacles that totally stump others—a person
must draw upon a wide scope of mental powers. It takes excellent
problem-solving ability, creative thought, good planning and
goal setting, accurate perception, persistent effort, skill
with language, quick thinking and a strong sense of intuition.
Intuition plays a major role in people smart as well. This
kind of intelligence allows a person to sense what others
are thinking, feeling, wanting, and planning. Although we
might tend to put this sort of skill down as basic "instinct,"
it actually relies on higher activities of the brain. People
smarts rely on very accurate and quick perceptions of clues
and relationships that escape the notice of many, and they
include the ability to analyze the information taken in. A
people-smart student can do well in school simply by dealing
with individual teachers in the most productive way: Some
can be charmed, some respond well to special requests for
help, some reward hard work no matter what the results, and
so forth. The people-smart student figures out easily what
is the best approach to take. People with these talents also
achieve well in other activities, of course—they become
the leaders in clubs, and organizations, and they are able
to win important individuals, like potential employers, over
to their side. They would probably be typed as right-brained
people, like artists, but their skill with language, both
spoken and unspoken, is one that draws heavily on the left
side.
Have you been able to compare these types
with people you know in your class, family, or neighborhood?
Of course, no individual is actually a type: People with any
one of the kind of smarts that we've described also have some
of the others.
(1 543 words)
(From Reading and Writing with Confidence,1998)
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