...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...
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...Colleges at Fault Knowledge gained from books is very important in today’s society, but experiencing new things in life is as much important, if not even greater. One such man, author Gerald Graff, wrote the benevolent article “Hidden Intellectualism” from his 2003 book “Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind.” In his article, he begins to build credibility with his own personal argument, main ideas, and appeals. He evaluates the approach some colleges take towards teaching literature. In his argument, he disagrees that students with street smarts are not able to apply their own knowledge in school. Graff challenges the normal expectations and assumptions of society. Ultimately, the author conveys the idea that...
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...In “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff tries to argue that intellectualism is not only existing in the academic world but usually hided in the street, the latter is what we call the “street smart”. According to his own experiences from his childhood, Graff tells how his disinterest in the academic research limited his gift of intellect until he once tried to discuss sport with his friend by means of academic research methods and strategies. Then, Graff tells his experience when he was in Chicago. He found that the phenomenon of anti-intellectualism which had troubled his childhood still existed. Then Graff tells the readers that, in his childhood, he is afraid to show his gift of intellect because it would make him be target of in-class...
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...Salem Saleh 10-13-13 Summary Composition 800 Hidden Intellectualism In recent discussion of, intelligence, a controversial issue has been whether or not schools provide equal opportunity for students of all interests. The schools believe there is a certain standard in which students will become successful and smart. However, Gerald Graff, in Hidden Intellectualism, argues that students who are considered, “street smart” should also be acknowledged as, “intellectual” but do not meet that standard due to the set expectations of academia. The educational system is intended to develop everyone for an equal chance of success. If it did, it would be able to make the "street smart" achieve the intellectuality that is expected to meet the academic standard. The author emphasizes that academia or academics are focusing on educational life by being capable of reading and understanding a difficult text. Also the street smart won't be able to pass this task unless they can choose a subject that is interesting rather than what is automatically given them. In addition, he author encourages academia to tap into their students’ street smart to help them succeed in an academic environment they might otherwise be excluded from by changing the subject to a subject in which the student is interested. I am of two minds about Gerald Graff’s claim that teachers should encourage students to focus on subjects that are interesting and make the students motivated to learn. On the one hand,...
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...The reading Hidden Intellectualism establishes Gerald Graff’s theory that our culture creates a negative outlook on streets smarts as opposed to traditional academic smarts. Graff goes in depth to explain his belief that intellectualism is hidden in the shadows of common interests and that students are more likely to improve their budding intelligence if they were inspired to work with things that intrigued them. I concur with Graff’s outlook on today’s approach to academics. I have come across many people who do not do well in school but, are beyond skillful in other activities that are outside of the classroom. Graff’s opinion is obvious that he believes there would be many benefits if education included more of student’s interests. By...
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...In Gerald Graff essay "Hidden Intellectualism" he contends that there is a probability of some type of shrouded intellectualism other than the conventional scholarly intellectualism. He suggests that in extra to simply book smarts, understudies who have more road smarts have the capacity to amass their insight into book smarts also. He underpins this contention with his childhood encounters with unique hobbies in perusing games rather than excellent writing. He then infers that it is conceivable to channel exceptional hobbies from every person with "street smart" (Graff 244) into their academics by consolidating more subjects that would intrigue these people. I concur with Graff's contention that there ought to be a balance between being street smart and book brilliant in light of the fact that the mix of these two sorts of knowledge could just advantage a person in their future....
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...In the reading “Hidden intellectualism”, Gerald Graff argues that street smarts are actually intelligence, the difference is that on how they approach knowledge, which is different from the norms do. In the article, Graff state that they are called “street smarts” because they are actually book smarts that hide in the society, hence called “hidden intellectualism.” He also implies knowledge is far beyond academic learning, where it can take place in people’s everyday life. Basically, he is saying that street smarts use their knowledge in a practical way. Graff uses himself as an example when he noticed using reasoning and argumentative strategies to discussing sports with his friend, which shows an academic side of him. Some people often suppress...
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...In “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, he claims that intellect does not just exist in academics. Graff insists that street smarts can also be a form of knowledge. In addition, he claims that even if individuals do poorly in school, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t smart. It could just mean that they are very street-smart with a knowledge on different subjects. Furthermore, schools usually overlook street-smarts and associate them with non-intellectual interests. Graff thinks that students should find something they are actually interested in first so then they can build from there and eventually become intellectuals. Additionally he suggests that if they could somehow see these interests through “academic eyes” with language they understand,...
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...To be effective, an essay must utilize the aspects of the rhetorical situation that are best suited for the genre for which it is written. It should use adequate evidence to properly augment claims made by its author. When comparing Mike Rose’s essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” and Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism,” the more effective essay is Graff’s due to the examples and comparisons that he uses. “Hidden Intellectualism” begins with a relatable example of a student who is very smart when it comes to non-academics but does not perform well in school. “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider weighty and academic” (Graff 787). Graff believes that...
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...Summary and Response September 16, 2014 In Hidden Intellectualism Gerald Graff’s argument is about “book smarts” (intellectualism) and “street smarts”. His argument is that most people look down on the street smart people thinking that they don’t know anything and are not smart and if you were “book smart” they also look at you as being too smart to hang out with certain people. He also puts many examples and even his own experience as growing up. This quote says it all and even in his own experience. “I grew up torn, then, between the need to prove I was smart and the fear of a beating if I proved it to well; between the need not to jeopardize my respectable future and the need to impress the hood”. With times changing I do believe that Gerald Graff’s argument and quote makes a very good point. I am one of those students who does not like to read or write unless it’s something I’m interested in or my passion which is nursing. Even though in most high school you can take an elective of your choice and it usually is something they like they don’t go beyond that of the science and math of it like cooking class ,car/small motors .the school systems should look at what they teach because then we wouldn’t have students left behind. They could pass with their class and not have to take that English or math class for the 3rd time. I would rather write about something that’s going to keep me interested and write a good paper then to have to write about something I don’t care to...
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...Hit the books! Is it better to be book smart or street smart? This question of what we consider to be intellectualism; Gerald Graff goes on to explains this through his the Chapter “Hidden Intellectualism” in his book Clueless in Academic: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind. I agree with Graff’s point about how teachers should try to get students more engaged in schoolwork using subjects students find interesting. Graff clarifies how being intelligent is not only about being academically smart, but also being “street smart”, using his own experiences. At the beginning of his chapter, Hidden Intellectualism Graff says, “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.” (245). What I believe Graff is trying to convey is, how it is viewed more important to know what started the French Revolution, than it is to know how to keep a conversation going, even when the two people have nothing in common. Although keeping up conversation would not be viewed as non-academic, but could very well be used to give presentations or speeches in class or in a debate. Graff goes on to offer his own experience of his youth. He describes himself as a typical anti-intellectual teenager that preferred sports to schoolwork. He explains how intellectualism was treated very hostile in the 1950’s and because of that he tried avoiding seeming book smart. He explains...
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...Hidden Intellectualism Summary In the short story “Hidden Intellectualism” written by Gerald Graff, he argues that regular topics such as sports, media, others are just as important in the writing process as subjects written by historical figures. The school systems are not taking advantage of what interests students could be grasping through subjects that they already know and love. Graff believes that street smarts are every bit as important as school smarts. He believes that true intellectuals can bring interesting points to any topic. Graff grew up in a neighborhood in Chicago. He was not raised as what our society considers as an “intellectual,” but rather, a regular city kid. As a child, Graff loved sports, and more sports. He was not interested in any type of literature or publications, or even reading for that matter. As his interests in sports grew, he decided to take up reading Sports Illustrated. After he decided that reading sports was in his interests, he moved on to other sports books and novels. Graff was completely wrong about his perception of reading. Graff’s childhood trained him to be an intellectual. Growing up in Chicago wasn’t easy for him; he had to become street smart in order to thrive in his location. In his case, sports and being cool were his idea of street smarts. He decided that he had to improve his school smarts. However, through sports stories, personal experiences, magazines and books, and movies, he learned to be an intellectual in...
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...Social class puts us all in separate groups, depending on our experience with wealth and power. In the articles “Blue Collar Brilliance” and “Hidden Intellectualism,” we are exposed to a different form of intellectualism that is not entirely based on academics. Authors Mike Rose and Gerald Graff describe how education plays a significant role in today’s society. The amount of money one has and the type of area one lives in affects the type of school a student attends. Those that live in a richer neighborhood often have schools that provide a strong education. Neighborhoods with people of a lower class often don’t have their school systems built as strong. The different levels of education we accomplish determines our value in society. Our...
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...In Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism” he goes into detail as to why intelligence is not just about book smarts but also street smarts. He goes on to state that “…schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (264). Many people discredit students all the information that street smart students possess since now days’ intellectualism is only accredited to subjects such as philosophy or historical wars. While students do need to read writers such as Shakespeare and George Orwell they will be more intrigued to gain a higher intellect if they being by doing research on subjects that they are fond of instead of being forced to study about something they have no interest in....
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...In his essay, “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff uses his own experiences to bring attention to the strain between book and street smarts, as well as the school systems failure to capitalize on street smarts. He references his own success in academic writing to shed light on possible solutions to rectify this failure and give street smarts the recognition they deserve. Graff begins his essay by discussing in detail the incorrect association between street smarts and lack of intelligence as well as the association between intellectualism and a focus on topics more widely considered important. He brings focus to the idea that children can be encouraged to learn on materials that aren’t quite so pretentious. Graff continues his essay by...
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