Streetwise or Bookwise?

 

My momma said "the books might be for excellence in exams, but I urge you to be wise enough outside the school walls too because education now only tests our memory, not our knowledge... Be streetwise! In other words, be both bookwise and streetwise" 

In the traditional definition, A street is a confined area or any geographical area where people reside. Coming to the part of being streetwise as a pattern of life is the ability to blend into any situation that life throws at you, a situation that tests how grounded  an individual is in life or how they are able to maneuver through the ups and downs/challenges in society. 

In other words, I see being streetwise as being SMART. 

While school system of today trains people to test their memory and not their knowledge, I will agree that one can be book-wise and not be street-wise. This kind of quality is always found in individuals who are referred to as AJEBO in the Nigerian parlance. 

The puzzling part about these two is the aspect where a person walks through the walls of an academic institution without the sequential knowledge of how to operate or be wise on the "street". 

 

How is that even possible?

 

The word "street" in this piece does not suggest being  a street urchin like it is usually described especially in areas often referred to as Ghettos. 

 

It might be, in other people's definition, but with respects to this piece, I am walking towards the essential knowledge to acquire to enable one operate effectively with applied wisdom in any UNFAMILIAR environment that one may find one's self. 

The present social environment requires both being street-wise and book-wise. In one way or another, I believe that once a person is street-wise, definitely he should be book-wise if not fully but a little and also vice versa.