Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff, is an essay in which the former English professor discusses the misconceptions of the ideas of intellectualism amongst society. He primarily focuses on the way adolescents view intellectualism as a negative trait that only “nerds” strive for. He also elaborates on his experiences in revealing his own hidden intellectualism, while in college in a literature class, after growing up in the “anti-intellectual” 1950s. However, through a method that Graff and an eleventh grade high school teacher are developing, they hope to make students think and debate argumentatively as intellectuals would. They do this in an attempt to have the students see their true potentials as intellectuals themselves.
Think about a time where you have been told to write on a subject that you have no interest in. How did the assignment turn out? Most students would agree that the end result of the assignment was most as anlytical and well thought as it could have been. In the short excerpt “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, Graff thoroughly argues that having students discuss and explore topics that are of interest to them “through academic eyes” (250) could develop the students into intellectual beings. When Graff says, “through academic eyes” (250), he means that the students develop, explain, argue, and academically explore their interest in a higher order way of thinking.
Luigi Vittatoe Professor Luke Leonard WRI1001 First Year Writing 2 October 29, 2015 Week 1 Discussion In Gerald Graff’s Hidden Intellectualism, he discusses the differences between street smarts and having intellectualism. He explains how these street smarts are just as important as doing well academically.
In Gerald Graff's Hidden Intellectualism, he begins with a long lasting discussion about the the difference between “book smarts” and “streets smart”. Street smarts are frequently called “hoods” as they are the tough types and book smarts as the name suggests are typically referred to as “nerds or geeks”. Graff gives us insight on many cases of how these books smarts can take various forms, and hide in what people call street smarts, hence the “hidden Intellectualism”. He does this by sharing his story with us, growing up in his community where being “street smart” was more acceptable than being “book smart”. He would be bullied if he tried to pronounce words better than the others or spoke too intelligently around them, and as a result he
Mike Rose disagrees with the assumption that “Intelligence is closely associated with formal education” (Mike, 247). Formal education does not always measure the level of intelligence of a person. Education as something people can gain not only in school, but every day of their lives. We should be learning from our experiences, and apply this knowledge to our everyday lives. Wisdom should not be looked at as just
After I finished reading Gerald Graff's essay, Hidden Intellectualism, I found myself agreeing with the idea that intellectualism is not, and should not, be measured purely by "academic" means. "Street smarts" and "book smarts" are put at odds by Mr. Graff, and according to his writing, the rest of our culture. The essay attempts to make the assertion that at the heart of "real" intellectualism is the ability to turn almost any subject matter into something interesting, or even more important, a way to connect to the world and a community where the discussion is important. The theme of this essay involves the writer's own internal struggle with his personal history, along with the failing of our education system to bring out the best in students, using material in which they show real interest.
Hidden Intellectualism is an article written by Gerald Graff on the school system and how being street smart is better than being book smart. Graff fills most of the article with stories from his childhood and relating the issue back to himself. He starts the article by asserting that “…schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work.” Immediately Graff blames the school system for not providing a way for street smart students to be academically engaged. Graff goes on to talk about his childhood throughout most of the article and strongly relates his love of sports to how this love could be academically applied in a classroom.
In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff he discusses the difference between “book smarts” and “street smarts” as they pertain to intellectualism (Tannen & Graff:2010 p.198). We are taught that being street smart means to have the knowledge to handle difficult or dangerous situations in life, and that being book smart means that you are well educated academically. Graff explains how schools and colleges may be at fault for not channeling such street smarts into academic work. We do not consider that one of the major reasons why colleges and schools overlook the intellectual potential of street smarts, is the fact we associate street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns. He proceeds to explain how students do not need to read challenging writings to become intellectual themselves.
In Gerald Graff 's essay “Hidden Intellectualism” starts of by talking about the stereotype of being so called “street smart” and and being “book smart” and how in school when you see someone who is street smart but doesn’t do go in school get a bad wrap. People look at them as a waste because they can’t apply there intelligences that they have and use it towards school, so people view them as not the right kind of smart because they are not a A student in school. Graff then goes on to say that maybe it is not the students that are the problem with how they do in school but maybe it is the school that have missed or overlooked the intellectual potential that kids with street smarts have. Graff also says that we only view the educated minds through schooling as the right way and schools and colleges look at kids who do not like school and don’t do well as anti-intellectual people.
Brendan Rieth ENC1101 Pagan 10/30/16 Hidden Intellectualism College, a new math assignment and paper assigned to you seemingly every night, but you’re a history major and have no need for learning the Pythagorean theory. This makes it easy to lose interest and fall behind in class. In his article, Graff cites works from many authors that correlate to his convincing idea of hidden intellectualism and looks deeply into the idea of finding and accepting someone’s “intellectualism”. While it is not a well-recognized idea, there is a lot of promise in the idea of hidden intellectualism, however, our society only focuses on the textbook and curriculum. Considering that some minds we consider genius today were not always seen as “intellectuals” maybe
Graff says street smarts offer more life skills than the education provided in school. In other words, you can be smart without being highly educated because knowledge goes beyond academics. He grew up thinking he was anti-intellectual because his writing skills were not great about the topics he’s expected to write in school. Graff describes how sports helped him excel in academics and discover his hidden intellectualism. He believes ‘’Making students’ nonacademic interests of an object study is useful, the, for getting students’ attention and overcoming their boredom and alienation, but this tactic won’t in itself necessarily move them close to an rigorous treatment of those interests.’’
Having never taken a college writing course before, I did not know what to expect and therefore assumed that I would choose my own topic to write about; of course, this isn’t the case. However, if I had the choice, I would not have chosen to write a response to Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism”. After going through his essay with a fine-tooth comb, I have found a few flaws in his reasoning. Gerald Graff believes that schools and colleges are not taking advantage of “street smarts” by not using them in an intellectual setting when in fact, schools are providing students with a large assortment of other knowledge and skills. In Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism”, he argues for the importance of changing school curriculums in order to better reflect the interests
The reading "Hidden Intellectualism" by Gerald Graff reflects views on being "street smart" and "book smart." He explains that society tends to associate people who are intelligent on solely being "book smart" and performing well in academics, rather than being street smart. He goes on to further explain that students perhaps can be intelligent on topics that interest them. Graff opens up the reading by giving his own personal experience on feeling torn between trying to prove that he was smart yet fearing that he was overdoing it. He was trying to prove that he learned just as much about the real world by reading his sports books and magazines as he would have if he had read the classic works of literature like most students in school.
“Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff starts off with an older argument between being book smart and street smart. Throughout the reading, Graff uses his own life experiences to critique the education system today. Points made focus on the idea of overlooking the intellectual potential of those who come across as being, “street smart”. Different authors cited in the reading to show how to accept another’s different intellectual. However, we realize that people who come across as being intellectual weren’t always labeled as that.
Graff feels that teachers should base some of their lesson on what students have a connection so they can be more focus because they are interested and not bored. He talks about how if schools and colleges will connect with the kids that are "Street Smart" they won't do a poor job in school they will do fairly better if they were more intact with the topic itself. Graff explains to us his growing up in the "hood" you were more respected for being street smart then you was for being book smart. It took a discussion about toughness for him to notice how intellectual he was, but he as just different from others , it wasn't about everything it was just about things he had a strong interest in. He noticed from how he us to have serious verbal altercations about sports and how he acknowledge the difference in players through
