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Hidden Intellectualism Gerald Graff Summary

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Hidden Intellectualism
In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, Graff describes how he believes that students should have the ability to take their nonacademic interests and turn them into subjects of academic study. He believes by integrating some of these nonacademic subjects it will improve the academic skills of students. I’m of two minds about Graff’s claim that students should pick their own nonacademic topics as objects of academic study. On one hand, I agree that by giving students the opportunity to study what really interests them, it will help them achieve more and stay actively focused in the classroom. On the other hand, I’m not sure if giving students that much free rein will cripple their academic abilities in the long run. …show more content…

Graff explains how kids with street smarts aren’t interested in traditional education and consequently don’t do well in subjects of school studies. In his essay Graff states, “I was your typical teenage anti-intellectual-or so I believed for a long time. I have recently come to think, however, that my preference for sports over schoolwork was not anti-intellectualism so much as intellectualism by other means.” (Graff 245) Graff thinks the education system is not benefiting from students’ street smart because students cannot use the cleverness they have for what interest them and apply it into their school work. I agree that by using what a student already knows will not only help benefit their learning experience, but it will also keep the

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447 Words | 2 Pages

“Everyone knows some young person who is impressively "street smart" but does poorly in school” (Graff). In Hidden Intellectualism written by Gerald Graff he started his writing off by talking about his main argument which was that the school systems had some major flaws that needed to be addressed. Graff argued that the schools should not only focus on the academic parts but also the nonacademic parts that could be used in real life situations. He ensured that he would get his message across by using Pathos (emotions), Ethos (credibility), and Logos (logic). He made sure to use Pathos, Ethos, and Logos by including personal stories, a strong tone His intended audience were teachers, students, and school boards.

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1126 Words | 5 Pages

Gerald Graff explains, “the fact that we associate those street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns. We associate educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic. We assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato, Shakespeare, The French Revolution, and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating, fashion, sports, TV, or video games” (#). What he is explaining is that to many times school systems force feed student’s material that they have little or no interested in and think they will read the item and not google it and take the easy road. Now Graff doesn’t say that students should not learn about the important figures that shaped the world as it is, but instead ween them in by getting them interested in something they enjoy first.

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1696 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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494 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout the first month of class, I’ve learn many concepts from the assignments given which include ethos,logos, pathos,claims,rhetorical reading and writing and others. One concept I have grasp is rhetorical reading, which means persuading the audience to believe a certain value or idea ultimately is considered an argument. For example,as I analyzed the content in the article Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff, I had developed the conclusion that the author attempted to convince his audience to agree with his claim, which in fact his belief was that street smarts should absolutely be valuable academically in schools. After analyzing the article thoroughly, I had the task of writing a rhetorical essay explaining if I agree with the point

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910 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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1012 Words | 5 Pages

After experiencing himself being in the anti-intellectualism for loving sports magazine and not school books, for sure he knows that this did not make his “street smart. His argument successfully started with what others had to say about “street smart” and was followed up with his point of view. After having read this essay, I can truly agree with Graff that individuals may in effect have hidden intellectualism in them. Given the opportunity by education to demonstrate their abilities in literature in subjects that interested them will put them in a high academic level of education. The layout of the essay is professionally written, Graff took his professionalism and education experience to effectively write this debate and successfully point out what others point of view was and how he successfully he contradicted the others point of

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1238 Words | 5 Pages

Graff explains that in the educated lifestyle our minds stay inside this neat little box, which some may consider to be extremely important. This also supports the idea of how being a well-rounded person can get you a wide variety of opportunities and advances in things such as your: extracurriculars, schooling, and careers. The future of our kids relies in

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1433 Words | 6 Pages

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

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932 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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973 Words | 4 Pages

The goal of the usage of this fact is to show readers this common term does not reflect real traits of smart people and can be treated as an insult because of that. It is one of the few examples of Fridman’s appeals to readers’ logic. The essay is based on general data; the author mentioned schools and universities promote negative attitude to smart students: “Nerds are ostracized while athletes are idolized” (Fridman). But he did not use any statistical or science data to support his position. For example, Fridman could provide data about scholarships and other types of funding for sports and other activities.

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745 Words | 3 Pages

“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.

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

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

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1686 Words | 7 Pages

This can but a lot of pressure on students. Wouldn't

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821 Words | 4 Pages

Especially in the world today, where kids want to study

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1204 Words | 5 Pages

Grades are just numbers. They do not measure intelligence, in the same way that age doesn 't define maturity. At least once, majority of students in school have experienced getting poor grades. These grades are forcing them to be “smart” and, to such a great extent, they feel stressed and pressured. In fact, grades actually do extra harm to them than good since they have negative effects on students’ mental health.

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