HOW TO BE A FIRST CLASS STUDENT AND STILL BE STREET WISE

A paraphrased extract from my book The Radical Road Map for Undergraduates

It is generally believed that one cannot be two things at a time, especially in an academic setting. That is, is either you are academically sound and be street foolish or you are academically foolish and be street wise or sound. This is a thinking of an atrophied brain. It is possible to achieve both - academic prowess and street wisdom.

There is no point in building up yourself to be the best in your school, only to come back to the larger society and find life not very comfortable. There are lots of graduates out there with good academic results in their hands, but they are still thinking of how to survive in the society because while studying they neglected their society in their academic study. I will say they build themselves for the school, to become the champion in the school. (Read about how students build themselves only for school under why ‘I wrote this book,’ and why you should study about your society as you are studying in school under ‘What should I know before going to higher institution’).

To commit yourself to academic study, that is, building yourself to be the best in your school and still be relevant in the society do the following:

• Think out of the box:

If this level of acquiring knowledge is called higher institution of learning, it means: higher thinking; higher writing; higher view; higher imagination; higher innovation; higher information, etc.  And one thing about this is that it can be different from status quo. To be different does not mean the same as to be wrong. Difference could mean better than the rest, new to the rest, higher than the rest, pleasant than the rest, etc. but ensure you are not worst than the rest: that is the meaning of being wrong...

• Simplify the writing of status quo while you elevate the thinking;

One of the causes of cramming is lack of understanding, and whatever in the world can cause lack of understanding in conversation if not the use of ‘pompous words’ to form ‘overwrought sentences’. This is style of some lecturers, using ‘big words’ to describe ‘small issues’. But you don’t have to cram without understanding, even if the lecturer or teacher wants you to give back the same way they have given it to you using the same word. Remember“give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

The best way to cram and not forget is to actually understand the message in what you are cramming. And how can this be with too many florid words? Simply simplify the word. Look up each pompous word in dictionary for their meaning, make sense of the meanings and form your own note from there.

To understand the message bring the words down to your level. Remove all the ‘highs’ and replace them with ‘lows’. The reality is this: everybody understands anything about low, while high is only open to the few because ‘big words’ are coded words. The society for which you are studying to help solve some problems (or in which you are coming back after your programme to solve your own problems) with your understanding does not belong to one party, instead it belong to everyone in which ‘the low’ take the 90%.

• Develop your own examples and relate discussed topic to society:

In everything, experience is the best teacher. Why? It’s because it involves you in every process. Involving in a process does not entirely mean doing something physically, you can also do something mentally. Thinking is doing. Believing is doing. Memorizing is doing, and they do not have any physical involvement in the process, but they take the totality of you to be involved. That is why experiencing doesn’t mean taking a physical active participation in something, instead, it means submitting the whole of you psychologically and cognitively to a particular happening. These two domains are foundation of psycho-motive actions which later result to physical actions.

So when I mention experience, I mean what you have seen, or heard or read about or in any case and whatever activity you might have physically got involved in before in your society. So when you are in a class or reading at home, try to make at least a relevant reference to your experience in society from what you are being taught. Though your lecturers may give you examples, nothing can become yours or part of you as that which begins with you.

• Teach or explain to others: 

Some people are mean with their knowledge, treating it as if it is a material possession which they cannot have it after giving it out. They don’t want others to have access to their mental possessions, therefore reduce themselves to learner to be taught while others gain mastery through them.

Knowledge is not a material possession that goes away the moment you give it away. Knowledge expands, and it becomes more rooted in you when you teach others.

Doing these four things as you are studying academically will make you standout in your school and society.

Read also DID MY SCHOOL PREPARE ME FOR SOCIETY? and THE RADICAL MEANING OF EDUCATION along with WHY MUST I GO TO SCHOOL? And not without HOW TO STAY CHRISTIAN IN COLLEGE and THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF EDUCATION YOU SHOULD KNOW Go back Home