ipl-logo

Hidden Intellectualism Summary

762 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: School to prison pipeline literature review

Seika McKee
Dickens
ENGL 1113
1 OCT. 2015
The Hidden Education in the Poor Perhaps one of the most valuable opportunities in life is education. In a conversation between Adam Howard, associate professor of education at Antioch College, and Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, in “Where Are The Poor Students,” some subjects at hand are the availability or unavailability of opportunities, the missed value of education, and the irrelevant comparison of test scores directed towards the poor students. Likewise in “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, professor of English and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, topics such as schools missing opportunities to engage students to their intellectual …show more content…

Levine claims that these children are looking up to gang members and drug dealers as a way of life, knowing that their are no educational requirements to fulfill these positions (20). These poor students are simply seeing school as a must do for the time being, and not seeing the the value of the education they could be receiving if they had a better role model to look up to. Similarly, Graff asserts that students are not connecting with Shakespeare or the French Revolution, these students do not value the information because it does not pertain to them; However, sports, fashion or dating interests these students and have values to them (245). Schools and colleges are not connecting the dots. The values they set into the education system no longer interest students. The students are, however, finding that they can look up to those who did not apply themselves to education, and are getting the wrong concept of …show more content…

Levine claims that schools are starting to expand the quality of the student body by the rate of the students standardized test (22). Colleges are not looking to get students who do not apply themselves, but also, colleges are making it harder for the poor students that are trying to better their education. Along the same lines, Graff reminds us of the competition of comparing test scores in school (249). Graff explains, in school scores are made up by one’s reading ability, instead of, like in sports, the actual competition itself or arguing (249). Overall schools are using test scores as a way to compete with education instead of looking out for the best interests of the

Show More
Related
179 Words | 1 Pages

In Hidden Intellectualism article, Gerald Graff begins the article with talking about “street smart” and that not everyone have to be good in school to be considered smart. He also said that schools and colleges overlook the intellectual of street smart. For Gerald Graff he noticed that he had intellectual when he noticed that he was using reason and arguments to talk about sports with his friends. Then Graff moves to saying that Intellectuals is looked down at and that he was scared to show the intellectual side of him because he was worried of people bullying him but when he was talking about sport he was sharing his intellectual without anyone knowing. Graf mentioned that sports is more intellectual than school.

Read More
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.

Read More
291 Words | 2 Pages

In the book “I just want to be average” by Mike Rose, Mr. Rose tells the story about his lack of education growing up and how he was put into a lower class of scholars. The program that Rose was enrolled in was the Vocational Track [2], through his own words this was a “dumping ground for the disaffected [3]”. Rose was placed in the vocational track through an accident because he had the same last name of another student. He enjoyed that type of learning environment because not much was expected from him. The other students that were also in the vocational track were said to be the slackers or the slow students.

Read More
138 Words | 1 Pages

Brains vs Brawns: A Summary In Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism,” Graff explains that having “street smart” (244) does not mean one is not intelligent. Graff mentions schools and colleges might be the reason for why students are missing an opportunity to be both academically smart and street smart at the same time. Graff implies that knowledge comes in many different forms (246). Graff argues for the use of non- topics in a school setting, because the non-academic topics start healthy competition and bring students together.

Read More
461 Words | 2 Pages

In his essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff criticizes schools “for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (244). Graff argues that intellectualism does not only have to be something that is achieved through this idea of “proper” education which is obtained through school work, but it can also come from the form of “street smarts” which is referred to those who learn things outside of an academic environment, for example their neighborhood. He makes a good point here because if a student is more interested in what is being taught, they will be more likely to engage in the lesson and obtain the information. Schools should give students the opportunity whether they are interested

Read More
1342 Words | 6 Pages

Writing Assignment #1 Gerald Graff is an English Professor at the University of Illinois and also the founder of “Teachers for a Democratic Culture”. In his article “Hidden Intellectualism”, he explains how non-academic writing and discussions involving “lightweight” subject matter can improve one’s writing and allow for critical thinking (245). He starts off by stating “Everyone knows some young person who is impressively street smart but does poorly in school” (244). He refers to his experience of how he was not always interested in reading scholarly, but without recognizing it, he was building himself towards an academic life. Graff describes how he used his interest in sports to excel in academics.

Read More
515 Words | 3 Pages

When students are unaware of the history of social class, they begin to believe false information, such as, poor people deserve to be poor. Loewen does a great job of pointing out student’s misunderstanding of social status and strongly believes that it is the high school text books to

Read More
831 Words | 4 Pages

Paradigm Shift in Intellectualism Gerald Graff highlights the laxity of institutions to nurture supposedly non-intellectuals in his disquisition “Hidden Intellectualism”. Graff believes the predominant reason to be our association of these individuals with anti-intellectualism. Furthermore, he believes society’s notion of intellectualism lies in evaluating weighty and arduous topics such as Plato and Shakespeare, and real intellectualism constitutes enlivening the dullest of subjects. Essentially, Gerald Graff claims that pupils would be “more prone to take on intellectual identities if we encouraged them to do so… on subjects that interest them” (Graff 265). He describes his adolescent experience as an argument favouring his claim.

Read More
245 Words | 1 Pages

In “Hidden Intellectualism”, by Gerald Graff he makes a stunning point that compares street smarts to book smarts. He brought up the idea that if teachers incorporated things that students are passionate about, and topics that they can relate to they would get more passion and effort in their work, rather than assigning topics that the students have nothing in common with. I agree with this author's opinion one hundred percent. Just recently my high school teacher let us write an essay on our favorite band so she could evaluate our writing, and I felt like writing the essay was a piece of cake. In another class we had to write about the Bill of Rights and court cases from hundreds of years ago.

Read More
261 Words | 2 Pages

Gerald Graff’s argument on how educational systems are missing a great opportunity to tap into “street smarts” and focus them into a path of academic work is indeed convincing (Graff, 198). After all, anyone who’s been through the American educational system knows odds are often stacked against the “street smarts.” This is especially true in english classes, where one is often required to read boring and somewhat heartless books like, 1984, Beowulf, and the majority of Shakespeare’s classics. This is not to say these books are bad or shouldn’t be read during one’s schooling years, instead, the problem is one of apathy. For instance, in my high school years I never even remotely liked to read books Othello, but I loved to read magazines and

Read More
734 Words | 3 Pages

Shorris was researching for a book on poverty, and he was influenced into completing an experiment where he would teach the liberal arts to the impoverished. His central claim is that the liberal arts teaches the poor how to succeed in a political—as Thucydides defines it—society. Edmundson and Shorris both write essays on liberal education and contemporary culture; however, both authors come to different conclusions. While Edmundson decides that liberal education has become useless in today’s culture, Shorris documents how a liberal education has changed the lives of sixteen people. Shorris’ essay includes a younger generation that does have passion—this is opposed to Edmundson describing an entire generation as generally passionless.

Read More
409 Words | 2 Pages

Gerald Graff is a former English professor that examines the fallacies of academia in his essay “Hidden Intellectualism”. As the title suggest, Graff’s essay will depict how children are becoming intellectuals through the discussion of cars, sports, fashion, and TV. There is also discussion about how schools are overlooking this knowledge as being beneficial to a student’s success in academic writing and what they can do to relate the students previous understanding of extra-curricular activities to academia. My essay will examine the foundation of “Hidden Intellectualism” and the pros and cons of applying this to modern education systems. There is seldom an academic writing that is relatable and I am excited to read, but Graff executes this

Read More
734 Words | 3 Pages

Graff argues “we need to incorporate street smarts in traditional academic intellectualism” (217). It is evident that by incorporating both academic and social importance, a novel world of opportunity can be opened to learners. When students are given a chance to write about research topics that they are interested in, they would be able to learn more about the subjects linked to their social lives in addition to attaining the benefits of classroom knowledge. Hidden intellectualism explores a refreshing and important topic of helping to change the school system rather than just rambling about what’s wrong with it.

Read More
832 Words | 4 Pages

Schooling for the students Schooling systems have been the same since anyone could remember. What might need to change for students to get the equal amount of education as the “gifted” students? Will students still benefit from the lack of renewal in the education system? According to the authors from chapter 4 "How We Learn" Alfie Kohn, John Taylor Gatto, Bell Hooks, and Kristina Rizga, explaining in their essays published in "Acting Out Culture" by James S. Miller.

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

The main argument is that perceived throughout the reading is that the schools itself is failing students. They see a student who may not have the greatest test scores or the best grades, and degrade them from the idea of being intellectual. Graff states, “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic” (Graff 244). Schools need to channel the minds of street smart students and turn their work into something academic.

Read More

More about Hidden Intellectualism Summary

Related Topics

Open Document