Hidden Intellectualism Gerald Graff

363 Words2 Pages
Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” contemplates the age-old idea that street smarts are anti-intellectual. However, as Graff points out, “schools and colleges are at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into academic smarts.” (244). What Graff means by this is that being street smart does not mean a person lacks intelligence. Rather, educational institutions need to find a way to effectively ‘tap into’ this different format of intellectualism to produce academic intelligence. Graff goes on to point out that society associates ‘weighty’ subjects, like Shakespeare and Plato, with intellectualism, but not less serious subjects, such as sports and video games. In consideration of this overlook