How We Were Smarter and How to Stay Smarter

Those good old days 

We were smarter back then. That’s because things were not readily at our fingertips. We had to remember things instead of clicking on links. Phone numbers were not in our cell phone contacts. We either had to look them up in a phone book (yes, we used those) or memorize them. I still remember the phone numbers of my uncles and aunts who have been gone for years. Yet, I can hardly tell you what the phone numbers are for my kids, thanks to my “smartphone”.

When we needed to research something, we went to the library. Before checking out books to take home to read for a project, we scoured the card catalog, finding things in alphabetical order. We found the books we needed on the book shelves. There were no easy answers at our fingertips. We couldn’t ask Google. We could ask a parent or grandparent, but there was no quick resource for definitions or thesaurus words. Rather, we had to look it up, page by page, and letter by letter.

made us sharper

When we travelled, we found our way by planning our route before we left. We were smarter because we had paper maps and used them: state maps, county maps, and even city maps showed us how to navigate. Sometimes we asked folks who’d been that way before. We followed the route we highlighted on the map for the trip. There was no listening to someone’s voice giving us directions to turn right in 500 feet. No, we trusted the person traveling with us – or followed directions we’d taped to the dashboard if we travelled alone.

Sometimes we stopped and asked directions when we were lost – or confused. Sometimes, we learned to follow the first set of directions and then ask someone else for the remaining directions. We simply asked people – some of them total strangers, who helped willingly.  I call that working smarter.

and healthier

Germs made us healthier. We didn’t have antibacterial soap. We had soap, all right. Some of it was homemade and wore the softness off our hands if we used too much. I remember rushing to the sink to wash our hands before dinner after we’d been out in the yard, the woods, and the dirt all day. I wonder how many times we wiped our faces or put our dirty fingers in our mouths or ears. That bacteria strengthened our immune system and our Mama believed fresh air was the best thing for us. It was. Playing outside those days and running barefoot through the grass provided endomorphin release and healthy growth. 

and more calculating

We had to figure things out on our own. Figuring things out on our own made us smarter. Certainly there were times we asked other adults (or other kids) about a subject. Yet, when it came time to figure out how to do something, we used our own intellect and not some cyber help. Cyber might make things faster, but faster is not always better. If a kid doesn’t understand the “why and how” of a mechanism because he hasn’t had to use it, then he’s really not that smart. Figuring out and understanding how to make a go at something is one of the best preparations for life. 

Calculators are a great invention and save time. They also cost us something, because we don’t even have to think. We let the calculator figure it out for us. We’re not so smart and not so sharp if we don’t understand how to do the math the calculator does for us. It’s the same with spelling. Spell check automatically underlines words it deems are misspelled. Sometimes I wonder how soon school spelling tests will become obsolete. Who needs to learn how to spell when our gadgets do it for us?!

and more imaginative

Reading helps us learn how to spell and how to write. It makes us smarter. Watching a move of a story isn’t the same as reading the story. When our kids were small, they were dismayed at the times I made them “read the book first” before we watched the movie as a family. There were several reasons for this: most movies take liberties with changing the stories, making them more fiction than truth (which is a bone of my contention). A child doesn’t have to use his brain as much to “get” the story if he watches it. When he reads the story, the characters and scenes play out in his mind instead of being shown to him. He has to work harder to “see” the child in the tattered jeans and a tear washing the dirt off the cheek. That makes his mind sharper and smarter.

What I think

I know that electronics are here to stay, and I use them all the time.  Even so, we must recognize how they affect our minds and the way we think. We can do things to help our minds stay sharp and fresh.

Look up words in the dictionary instead of googling. Crack that Thesaurus to find the right word you need instead of using the Internet. When was the last time you had to find a word alphabetically? Puzzles, reading, fresh air and exercise are important ways to grow your mind and make you smarter. While I like to listen to the Bible on my app, I also read the words  in my hand-held Bible when I am taking time with God.

What to do

Before you head out on a trip, take a good look at a map and know where you’re heading. Don’t get lost because your GPS hits a low-service area or your battery dies down. Get a picture in your mind of the route and track it in your head as you follow GPS.

Years ago I watched an older Amish gentleman step out the length of a building. He was fascinated by its size, but he had nothing by which to measure. So he stepped it off. He wanted to go home and tell his grandkids how huge this building was that he saw in my community. This grandpa didn’t have a cell phone or google, so he figured it out by himself. We should do that, too.

Sometimes we should do the long math, even if we need to check it with a calculator. (Or, if you have a family member like my hubby, you don’t need a calculator.) Those folks can do it faster in their head than I can punch it into the calculator.

By allowing our kids to find answers using electronics, we are teaching them not to think. It’s a small wonder that a clerk at a register can’t do the math when the computers are down. Give your kids (and yourself) opportunities to think instead of taking what is handed to them without any work on their part.

Make sure your kids are in tune with nature and not electronics. Play games with them; you’ll find they will choose that over entertaining themselves. Think smarter by being smarter in the way you use your mind and make your kids use theirs.

The bottom line

Take control of how you use your mind and your time. Help others do the same. You’ll be smarter and more well-rounded, for sure.

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Photo credit: Gerd Altmann via pixabay.com