Alvaro asked a tough question: How do you define SMART?

Alvaro asked this question as a comment after a blog entry discussed recent evidence that physical exercise contributes to academic success. Alvaro, “smart”, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. You do not necessarily want a computer jockey next to you in your foxhole. You do not necessarily want a great world scholar managing your finances. If I lifted you up and dropped you down into a community of Aleuts or Bedouins or Ainu, it would take a very, very long time before anyone in that community viewed you as “smart”. “SMART” IS CONTEXTUAL. We commonly define “smart” in terms of academic success in school. We commonly define it in terms of the accumulation and capacity for regurgitation and manipulation of content from memory, because to a very large extent, that is what our concept of “school” and cognitive advance is all about. How much does Sally KNOW?! That, ultimately, is what SAT and MCAT and LSAT and all of our state assessment tests are all about. On one level, they are about “minimum standards”, i.e., what every Tommy, Dickie and Harry should know. On the other hand, they are about”academic excellence”, which is defined by a SUPER-know-it-all Tamara or Dixie or Harriet. In the real world, these criteria are correlated with, but are obviously not strictly equated with achievement or self-fulfillment or success. I received my graduate training at one of the great academic medica...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Autism Origins, Treatments Brain Fitness Brain Science Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Language Development Neuroscience Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs