What does smart mean?

On a day that began like this:  “God, help me. Show me.”, I am grateful.

I took my journal to the kitchen table and began writing everything that came to mind, a la Julia Cameron and The Artist’s Way “Morning Pages” practice. It didn’t matter to me how disjointed or scattered or random the thoughts were in my head. I wrote down everything — three long pages of everything I could hear myself thinking at that moment.

I even allowed myself to write my Inner Critic’s voice saying: “Why can’t I focus?” and “What’s that all about?” and “I’m all over the place again.”

Somewhere in the middle of page two came this self-reflection:
“Who cares if I’m smart?!?! What does that do for me anyway?!?”

Followed by:
“So, if I am intellectual, what does that mean?”

And then, honestly, I didn’t push myself to answer the question.
My thoughts wandered to something else.

I continued until the end of my third page, closed my journal, and moved into my office to open my email.

187 unopened emails. UGH!

I’m on information overload again, no doubt. Clearly, it’s time for me to unsubscribe to some of these things…again.

That’s when I experienced the days first sign of synchronicity, that sense that Carl Jung first expressed as “meaningful coincidence”. It is that feeling of connectedness that affirms for me my belonging in the universe. I am thankful for this, too. It’s a feeling that makes me smile.

Whether you choose to believe in the concept or not, for me, experiences of synchronicity confirm the connection of mind and matter.

As I was quickly pushing the “delete” button, running down that email list, I came to the daily feed I get from Seth Godin’s blog. Lately, I haven’t been taking the time to read it. Today was different. I opened it.

Certainly nothing in the subject line – Launching a new idea in a post-paper world — called me to it.
But Seth always has something interesting to say. After all, by anyone’s definition, he is certainly a thought leader.

What I found was not what I expected.

Often Seth’s daily notes are short, little snippets on something marketing related. What I found instead is one of the most poignant, compelling and thought-provoking statements I’ve read in quite some time.

What I found was about how we’ve learned, what we’ve learned, what we’re teaching and what we’re not. What I found was a call to action, a call to foster an environment full of wonder and discovery and to push for change in our out-dated systems.

And once I started reading, “Stop Stealing Dreams! (what is a school for?)” I couldn’t stop.

And to my surprise, there in Item #99, I found the question:  “What does smart mean?” framed in almost exactly the language I had written this morning.

I jotted note after note after note, highlighting the points of connection between Seth’s words and my beliefs. The more I read, the more I realized that Seth had written what I’ve been thinking since the 8th grade!

I was reading 98 pages answering my morning question –  “Who cares if I’m smart, whatever smart is?” and “What does that do for me anyway?”.

I was reading 98 pages validating my deep knowing that we must nurture our children’s creative energy, not stifle it.

I was reading 98 pages highlighting the innovation that comes from teaching our children “how to be usefully wrong” rather than perfect.

And I was reading 98 pages confirming that my seemingly “crazy” career shift from hospitality executive to teacher, mentor and coach is my highest calling because I channel my energy toward expanding awareness of all things “creative” and I work to confirm the intrinsic value of training what we know as “right-brain” thinkers.

Every page of this beautifully expressed manifesto raises another question or statement worthy of our entire society’s attention.

Of course, as an avid journal writer and blogger, child of an English teacher and granddaughter of a poet, I was immediately drawn to Seth’s dialogue on “Reading and Writing”.

“In the connected age, reading and writing remain the two skills that are most likely to pay off with exponential results. Reading leads to more reading. Writing leads to better writing. Better writing leads to a bigger audience and more value creation. And the process repeats.”

Seth continues: “Writing is the second half of the equation. Writing is organized, permanent talking, it is a brave way to express an idea. Talk comes with evasion and deniability and vagueness. Writing, though, leaves no room to wriggle.”  

“Writing (whether in public, now that everyone has a platform, or in private, within organizations) is the tool we use to spread ideas. Writing activates the most sophisticated part of our brains and forces us to organize our thoughts.”

And he closes on the topic with this awareness:

“Teach a kid to write without fear and you have given her a powerful tool for the rest of her life. Teach a kid to write boring book reports and standard drivel and you’ve taken something precious away from a student who deserves better.”

Next, he raises the question, in the content of #103:

“What if we gave up on our failed effort to teach facts? What if we put 80 percent of that effort into making huge progress in teaching every kid to care, to set goals, to engage, to speak intelligently, to plan, to make good decisions, and to lead?”

That was followed by: “If there’s one classroom of beaten-down kids who scored well on their PSATs due to drill and practice, and another class of motivated dreamers, engaged in projects they care about and addicted to learning on a regular basis, which class are you going to bet on?”

Then he invites us to consider the notion that “Every great teacher I have ever encountered is great because of her desire to communicate emotion, not (just) facts.”

and “…what we need is not to create obedient servants with a large bank of memorized data, but instead to build a generation of creative and motivated leaders.”

Yes, encouraging elementary children to play with blocks makes good sense.

This one will raise some eyebrows I’m certain:
#116 – Higher ed is going to change as much in the next decade as newspapers did in the last one.

Page after page of this text is worth repeating, but the golden nugget for me is my keen understanding that I hold responsibility and to inspire action around this statement:

“School is at its best when it gives students the expectation that they will not only dream big, but dream dreams that they can work on every day until they accomplish them—not because they were chosen by a black-box process, but because they worked hard enough to reach them.”

So, what about “smart”?

Should we teach our kids, can we teach our kids, to be “smart”?
Which brings me back to my opening question: What does smart mean?

As a teenager, I knew I was “smart” because society told me so. As Seth points out, our society has defined “competitive ways to measure some level of intellectual capacity” that we all know as GPAs, SATs, other test results. As a young adult, I knew I was “smart” because I got accepted to an Ivy League school and completed a 4-year degree there. Then I was “smart” because I was a member of an elite society – where literally less than 100 women succeeded in my class. Then what? As an adult, with the institutions no longer a factor, how do I choose to define smart?

And does “smart” by those societal definitions mean I could support my own happiness and well-being in a way that acknowledged my core values? Does that definition mean I felt encouraged to contribute to my society in a way that made me feel whole and complete? Did that definition lead me to question everything and to honor my curiosity and my creative energy? Did that definition lift me up to explore limitless possibilities in the universe and believe I could create my dreams?

My answer is simply “NO”.
My conclusion and Seth’s is that being “smart” by our current societal definition does not make me a thought leader, nor an intellectual, as some define me. To appreciate thought leaders like Seth Godin, and to think of myself as one, I had to be willing to teach myself. I had to be willing to ask and answer questions that challenge me. Frankly, I had to be willing to un-learn much of what my standard, in Seth’s words “dream killer”, education taught me.

I’ve learned that to be “smart” I must reaffirm my passion and my purpose with practice, every single day. And I’ve learned, that in my world, the intention of practice is progress, not perfection.

In Seth’s words: “Practice works because practice gives us a chance to relax enough to make smart choices.” 

By practicing, I guess I might be “smart” after all…

In the words of the Wise Well Woman, expressed through me, I’ve learned that Deliberate Routines & Empowered Actions Manifest DREAMS.

So, what’s next?

We must simply teach everyone that it’s OK to dream and it’s OK to dream dreams no ones ever heard of before. Teach them to dream big. And teach them to design regular practices filled with creatively inspiring and enlightening action steps that build a path in the direction of those dreams.

“When we let our kids dream, encourage them to contribute, and push them to do work that matters, we open doors for them that will lead to places that are difficult for us to imagine.

Our job is obvious: we need to get out of the way, shine a light, and empower a new generation to teach itself and to go further and faster than any generation ever has.” – Seth Godin

Lastly, consider this:

“The only source of innovation is the artist willing to be usefully wrong. A great use of the connection economy is to put together circles of people who challenge each other to be wronger and wronger still—until we find right.” – Seth Godin

Thank you, Seth Godin, for being the thought leader you are. For your willingness to step up and out, and to lead us to places we may not yet be willing to go without encouragement, I am eternally grateful.

To download your free copy of Seth’s ebook, go here: http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf 

And let’s keep the dialogue growing. Pass the ebook along to anyone in your community interested and especially to those in a position to influence change.

Let me know how you feel, leave a comment below and report back, OK?

Wishing you well–