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Summary Of Hidden Intellectualism By Gerald Graff

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Recommended: Advantages of traditional classroom learning

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. Because he was passionate …show more content…

He simply argues that by having people writing or discussing a topic of their interest, they will be inspired to write intellectually and be more inclined towards academics. He informs the reader that by talking about sports with friends he was able to create well-developed arguments to defend his points (247). It is possible to explore something that you are ardent about with others to expand one’s writing abilities, but I do not believe talking about your favorite subject is sufficient enough. I believe that students need some form of instruction, especially at a young age, and it is the “weighty” subjects where someone can expand their thinking more so than subjects such as cars and sports, which have a finite set of outcomes and what occurs is more discrete, or factual (244). Graff also states that when people have to do academic work they isolate themselves and keep to themselves to do that work. Nonetheless, if they were able to discuss something such as sports, fashion, or cars, then they would be able to interact with a community of people with the same interests. I believe there is great value in being able to understand and argue for or against concepts and ideas that are rarely, if ever, applied to an academic situation. In the past, there was a heavy premium placed on people of the nonacademic type, the high achievers, and the people who did things with their hands. In the World War II era, which is when Graff is basing a lot of his arguments, smart people were not held to a higher standard in everyday society

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Graff however does not provide any examples of how his teachers could have really done this. This makes his argument seem childish and not well thought out. If Graff had provided the reader with an example of how his teacher could have easily done this, the reader would be more inclined to agree with him. Graff features his love of sports using Sports Illustrated as an example along with books written by sports players. He goes on to tell the audience that he believes his desire to read books of a certain subject was not anti intellectual, just intellectual in a different way.

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