Comparing The Works Of Gerald Graff And Mike Rose

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Gerald Graff and Mike Rose both share the important trait of “the value of non academic intelligence” because they both talking about gaining knowledge, satisfying intellectual thirst and education not taking non academic knowledge into account.

Author Gerald Graff’s talks about how colleges and schools are not taking into consideration the importance of “street smarts.” We may not see this type of intellectuals as important but they are. One and all know one person who is not that bright but can solve a difficult challenge and has useful knowledge about our environment. According to Graff, “Schools and colleges might take fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work.” This taken …show more content…

They both touch on the subject in which some type of intellectuals are not held accountable. Graff pleads the readers to take interesting topics that they may be unrelated to school and look at them “through academic eyes.” He wants to convey the idea of taking street smart topics and turning them into intellectual courses. As for Rose, he shows us that the amount of schooling a person completed does not necessarily measure their intelligence level. According to Graff, “I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture...because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly than school culture.” This may be true in some ways but the using street smarts in intellectual courses would be more …show more content…

Through his text we learn that his mother Rose Meraglio was a hard working blue collar women. Rosie was a waitress and knowing her job was demanding, she learned to work smart. Doing so helped her shift go by smoothly and satisfied customers which lead to a suitable tip. Rose and Graff bring a good point, most of the skills they learned take a lot of mind power to master. Blue collar skills and street smarts take time to learn, but the ending is rewarding. In both Rose’s mother and Rose’s uncle story, the author mentions their background of education, both of them are lacking formal education. However, they both successes in their career. Rose states that, “affirmation of diverse intelligence is not a retreat to a softhearted definition of the mind.” This meaning to appreciate the thought that drives their accomplishments and defines who they