Kelsey Helmer
English 131
Amber Carver
29 September 2015
Hidden Intellectualism Analysis In his eight page essay, Gerald Graff argues that street smarts can very well be more intellectual than street smarts. Street smarts should be encouraged to learn in a way that interests them so they have the same equal opportunity to be just as or more intelligent to book smarts who benefit from school in a different way. Back in the 1950’s, you had to choose whether you were a “hood” or a “clean cut” boy. The culture the students grew up in forced them to pick whether they wanted to be book smart and be made fun of, or impress the hoods by being physically and verbally tough. Graff did not agree with this. Graff Believes that schools should want all students to learn efficiently on something that interests them. He argues that street smarts could be equally smart if schools would allow them to learn off of something in their interest. Graff benefited more from playing on the streets and magazines because he was interested in what he was doing. Book smarts enjoy reading schools books, so it is beneficial to them. Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” is a critique on how schools are missing out on the opportunity to encourage street smarts to learn in a more effective way. To inform schools and universities, Graff was driven into the writing of his essay from the frustration of street smarts not being able to receive a beneficial education at school like the other students in the 1950’s after World War II. His personal experience growing up motivated him to argue the point that schools should give equal opportunity to both book and street smarts. Graff’s argument is to prove how street smarts can learn off of sports magazines and sports in general. They taught him debate, argument, analysis and statistics in a way he cared about. On the other hand, book smarts learned the same things just in a different aspect. They enjoyed topics like Shakespeare. To Graff, it is important to inform the schools and universities to help their students excel. He is trying to get the point across that it is the schools job to help the students advance in ways that interest them. Schools and universities should give street smarts the opportunity to learn in schools based off of what they are interested in. Point by point, Graff gives his evidence of his argumentation essay in a textbook. Schools and universities should try to take individual street smarts into more academic areas of studies. They are capable of learning the same thing as book smarts, only in different ways. Street smarts learn through sports magazines and sports itself. As Graff would say, rudiment of the intellectual life. In “Hidden Intellectualism”, Graff represents himself as a street smart who hated textbooks and cared only for sport and sport related topics. He grew up in Chicago right after the time of World War II. He grew up torn between proving himself to be smart, but had to be careful not to prove himself too much. Using his experience of becoming smart through sports, Graff provides facts on how street smarts are capable of being just as smart, if not smarter than books smarts. Graff’s proof of his own experience of knowing how much you can learn from streets and sports led him to providing facts evidence, and appeals for his own claim. He feels for the street smarts because he knows how hard of time it can be growing up having to deal with the “class” vs the “hoods. In his observational, informal essay, Graff argues to the audience on the way street smarts should learn. He is delivering his strong opinion to the audience. Gerald Graff proclaims his argument that street smarts should be able to learn in ways that interest them. I agree with him, everyone should be able to have equal opportunity to be intelligent. Everyone learns differently. Not all people are interested in the same topics. This is why all schools should allow students to learn in ways that interest them.