I believe there's a difference from smart and intelligent.
Smart is doing well on tests, earning good grades, and well, knowing what the matieral is in from of you.
Intelligent is just a soul that understands the world a little too well for its own good.
It varies. Sometimes, a truly intelligent person - who possesses a brilliant mind in some form or another, whether it be maths, physics, music or so on - can naturally excel at school tasks and tests. Other times, he or she cannot. A classic example of this is Isaac Newton. He was an undisputed genius, and had a mind both incredibly powerful and insatiably curious. Yet, at age 13, when his mother enrolled him in a farmer school, he failed miserably - he simply did not find it interesting. Even as an undergraduate in Cambridge university, he passed, but did not earn distinctions or honours. As a postgraduate however, he FLOURISHED, and was hailed as a genius.
For an intelligent person to do well, intelligence is not enough. He or she must be motivated, interested, devoted. Without hard work, intelligence means nothing.
The sad bit is that many educational systems don't nourish intelligence nor encourage a naturally inquisitive mind, they merely teach rote memory for the purpose of the test.
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· 9 years ago
I agree wholeheartedly. This was especially true in my high school maths class. Too much emphasis is placed on rigid formulae and theorems, rather than on flexible higher thinking. (i.e The "what" is given priority over the "why" or "how"). Nonetheless, I think this is done for logistic purposes - it saves time and money to teach a universally accepted method 'ad hoc' than always to dissect it into principles.
It's not about how "smart" a student is. It's about how hard you work, and how much effort you put in. High School and, hell, maybe college even, might be a cake walk and you don't have to put any effort into it...but eventually that shit will catch up to you.
For me, they aren't different usually. An intelligent person may not get good grades, okay. But they will be the amazing at something with merit. This is because intelligent people are driven and passionate. Okay I'll give you that they might not be driven about school, although thats probably the majority. It might be able sports, music or art. However, don't tell me that someone who watches trash tv all day and have accomplished nothing but thinks they have deep thought are intelligent, because if they were they would be doing something with their life.
Smart is doing well on tests, earning good grades, and well, knowing what the matieral is in from of you.
Intelligent is just a soul that understands the world a little too well for its own good.
For an intelligent person to do well, intelligence is not enough. He or she must be motivated, interested, devoted. Without hard work, intelligence means nothing.