Most students in Middle and High School realize that there are two kinds of “smarts” which are necessary to “make it” in life. There is school smart, also called book smart, and there is street smart.
School smarts are taught by a number of teachers over the years. Initially, it is the knowledge pumped into our heads of the basic skills necessary to handle life’s requirements. Reading, writing and mathematics are taught in ascending levels over the years. Then comes the variety of life’s subjects taught to us through books and lectures. Most of us resign from the classroom when we feel we have endured a sufficient amount.
Street smarts are learned even before we begin our formal education at age five or six, and they continue to be learned long after we’ve seen our last classroom. The courses, though not as formalized as those learned in school, have names like common sense, social interaction, peer pressure, and even survival. In fact, a street smart education goes handinhand with a classroom education since the school hierarchy is similar to neighborhood society with its masses, authority figures and rules of social conflict.
At first glance it might appear that these two kinds of education are all a person needs for success in life. Closer scrutiny, however, reveals that a third kind is more important in a modern world than before. Today it is vital that students also learn how to be news smart. How to read and listen to the news, how to interpret it, use it, and benefit from its information, are all necessary skills that must be learned at an early age, and maintained throughout life. Students need to be shown how events on the local, national and international level affect their lives. A high school student in the market for a new Toyota, for example, would benefit if he could interpret the news of a pending Yen revaluation. The result might mean the saving of hundreds of dollars if the car were purchased prior to a particular date.
Learning effective newsabsorbing habits and skills are as important as obtaining good health and nutrition habits. A daily intake of the news is as necessary as food, water and rest in order to succeed in this constantly changing world of ours.