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On smart kids. As a fellow "smart kid" myself. I remember an honest conversation with a fellow smart kid. On how because smart we didn't learn how to work hard early enough. For me school was not hard, from primary to secondary school I got by on minimal effort.
Grade 9, top of the girls section GRZ exam. Senior secondary got a bit harder, still with my same approach to my school, very chilled coz I pass anyway? Right? Cambridge exams come, enough B's, a C and a D (that I felt ma one about for years). Mad about no A's but eh, a pass.
Move on now we are in college. I remember one of the reasons I went into accounting was because I always did things I was good at. Smart kids have egos. Maths and me, a rocky relationship. Part not trying also just recently discovering I could possibly have dyscalculia.
Digression. Dyscalculia is like dyslexia but with numbers. I really struggled to learn time tables as child. I hate mental maths, asking me 36 less 8, first thing that happens in my head-panic. Anyway, so yes. Went on to pursue a whole accounting qualification.
I breezed through my foundation year with the same approach as in secondary school. Minimal effort, grasped the concepts in class. Casually read notes just before the exam. Results come out, Like clock work, "Adance to Go, collect 200". Progression to the next level. "Smart kid".
New level.
Same approach.
Wrote three papers. Failed one. With no prior experience of failure, academic or otherwise (okay I sucked at swimming but in the home I came from, that didn't matter much). I didn't know how to handle failure. I was shocked! Like what is this?!
Same approach.
Wrote three papers. Failed one. With no prior experience of failure, academic or otherwise (okay I sucked at swimming but in the home I came from, that didn't matter much). I didn't know how to handle failure. I was shocked! Like what is this?!
There were tears. It was a funeral. I had family and relatives checking in on me. It was dramatic. I couldn't reconcile that I didn't pass that one paper. Me?! Also when you grow up acing everything and under the label of smart kid a failure seems that much more amplified.
Little did I know that there would be more failure. Like trying and failing again. The short of it is that I learnt to fail and pick myself up a bit later than most. I also learnt to work harder a little later. College showed me that yes I can be smart but I need to put in work.
Talking with peers who grew up under the smart kid tag. There can be complacency, academic performance anxiety, not knowing how to study, not knowing how to fail and more so not knowing how to pick yourself and your ego back up when said failure happens.
Also the other side of it. The boxes! Please, especailly our generation let us do better. Allow and support smart kids to grow up into the adults they want to be. Smart kids don't have to grow up to be doctors or pilots. They can be rappers, writers, chefs...even yoga teachers.
