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Gerald Graff’s article criticizes the way schools associate “book smarts” with intellectualism and “street smarts” with anti-intellectualism, offers his own life experiences to counteract this view, and argues how “street smarts” can coincide with intellectualism.
Gerald Graff’s article, “Hidden Intellectualism,” strongly asserts that people make false assumptions about what it means to be intelligent. He believes we claim intelligence with inherently dry or narrow topics such as Plato, and nuclear fission while subjects such as cars, sports, and fashion are put aside as simple-minded matters. He goes on to refute this argument by saying there has never been any direct connection between a certain topic and the corresponding discussion or insight it may bring. Therefore, if students are first given
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topics that interest them, they will be more inclined to look at them through an intellectual lense just as Graff himself did during his own adolescence. During the 1950’s, Graff was a typical teenager that loved sports and hated books, which led him to believe he was an “anti-intellectual.” In turn, the only way for Graff to connect with academia was through a plethora of sports magazines, sports novels, and autobiographies of sports stars.
Graff then continues to illustrate his neighborhood as a middle class, melting pot, entrenched within class boundaries. Describing his constant fight for acceptance from the “hoods” versus his need to prove his intellect, Graff’s emotional struggle provides insight into why he supported “anti-intellectualism.” He later learned that he took part in intellectualism unconsciously during his youth. For example, the sports, and movies Graff’s discussed and debated with his friends, seemingly unintelligent on the surface, unknowingly provided him with the roots to intellectual life and helped him become the writer he is today. Graff concluded that his preference for sports over other topics just provided him a different avenue that still led him to become an intellectual. Graff’s discovery of himself, led him to affirm that sports were actually more intellectual than
school. Graff’s continues to argue that “street smart” beat out “book smarts” because they satisfy a thirst for knowledge, and community, whereas school seems pale, and isolated in comparison. However, Graff does recognize that street smarts on their own are not enough for students to turn into intellectual beings. Nevertheless, he provides a solution by stating how non academic subject should be used to grab the student’s attention and move them to an academic way of looking and analyzing those very topics. This can encourage students to enter into more rigorous form of study, and if not, it can still make them more literate than they otherwise would if given topics that cause them to ignore academic work entirely. By combining a student’s interests, and providing a path for them to merge with academia, seemingly “anti-intellectual” topics can actually provide a significant opportunity.
Gerald Graff expresses his concern in “Hidden Intellectualism” about how the education system does not accurately measure true intelligence. If the education system used each individual’s interests, Graff argues, the individual would be much more intrigued in the subject matter; therefore, increasing his or her knowledge. Throughout the article, Graff also draws on his love of sports to support his argument, saying that it includes elements of grammar, methodologies, and debate. He believes this proves that interests can replace traditional teaching. Graff contends one’s interest will create a community with others throughout the nation who share the same interests. While it is important to pursue your interests, there
Is it better to be book smart or street smart? Is it better to be happy and stable or unhappy and ‘rich’? Blue-collar jobs require you to learn skills that college cannot teach you; Rose points this out in his essay, stating: “It was like schooling, where you’re constantly learning” (277). In the essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose, he talks about how his mother worked as a waitress and how his uncle Joe dropped out of high school, eventually got a job working on the assembly line for General Motors and was then moved up to supervisor of the paint and body section. Rose suggests that intelligence is not represented by the amount of schooling someone has or the type of job they work. In this essay I will be explaining why Rose
In “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, the author speaks about how schools should use students’ interests to develop their rhetorical and analytical skills. He spends a majority of his essay on telling his own experience of being sport loving and relating it to his anti-intellectual youth. He explains that through his love for sports, he developed rhetoric and began to analyze like an intellectual. Once he finishes his own story, he calls the schools to action advising them to not only allow students to use their interest as writing topics, but instead to teach the students on how to implement those compelling interests and present them in a scholarly way. In perspective, Graff’s argument becomes weak with his poor use of ethos, in which he solely focuses on his own anecdote but, through the same means he is able to build his pathos and in the last few paragraphs, with his use of logic he prevents his argument from becoming dismissible.
School is a frightening place. It is broken down into multiple social ranks, and many children find themselves at the bottom. With children trying to work their way to the top of the food chain, the actual learning portion is either set aside or forgotten altogether. In Grant Penrod’s essay, Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids, he explains how modern children are growing to dislike intellectual children. The varying social ranks teach children to ignore low grades and try to be popular in school. Anti-Intellectualism is a trend which is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. People who only strive to be popular tend to tease intellectuals, but this is not half of the story. If the only goal children have in school
In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff pens an impressive argument wrought from personal experience, wisdom and heart. In his essay, Graff argues that street smarts have intellectual potential. A simple gem of wisdom, yet one that remains hidden beneath a sea of academic tradition. However, Graff navigates the reader through this ponderous sea with near perfection.
A philosopher once said ”A child educated only at school is an uneducated child”. As we are living in a world where everyone knows the importance of schools and the meaningful of being educated, then why does he believe that a child is illiterate when he only studies at school? Are schools actually limit on areas of study and overlook the essential of real life experience? In the article “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff claims that schools and colleges are might at fault due to their omission of the “street smarts”-knowledge necessary to deal with reality-, and their failure to invest them into academic work. By stating the fundamental of intellectualism and the influence of personal interests, he informs readers that those street smarts,
In “Hidden Intellectualism”, author and professor Gerald Graff describes his idea of what book smarts and streets smarts actually are. He details how new ideas can help to teach and build our educational system into something great and that perhaps street smarts students could be the factor that traditional education is missing that could make it great.
“Hidden Intellectualism” written by Gerald Graff, is a compelling essay that presents the contradicting sides of “book smarts” and “street smarts” and how these terms tied in to Graff’s life growing up. Graff felt like the school was at fault that the children with more “street smarts” were marked with the reputation of being inadequate in the classroom. Instead of promoting the knowledge of dating, cars, or social cues, the educational system deemed them unnecessary. Gerald Graff thought that “street smarts” could help people with academics. In his essay, Graff confessed that despite his success as an “intellect” now, he was the exact opposite until college. Where he grew up in Chicago, Illinois, intelligence was looked down upon around peers
America Needs Its Nerds by Leonid Fridman is a brief news article criticising the anti-intellectualism in modern American society. In Fridman’s article, he calls for the end of the exclusion and demoralization of children who are more inclined to study and read books. The article is written to persuade readers to alter American society by welcoming and accepting the “intellectually curious” and “academically serious” into the same popularity as athletes, partygoers, and other well- liked peers. Fridman effectively conveys his argument through rhetorical devices, including pathos and ethos.
Why street smart students are considered anti intellectual in academic area? In the article “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, he accounts the idea that street smart students are way more smarted than book smarts. He explains that street smart student will be able to solve an issue much faster than book smart because of his/her previous experience. According to author, the problems with considering street smarts as anti intellectual are they are actually much smarter that book smart students, they don’t equal opportunity , and schools along with colleges never challenge their mind get them to succeed in academic work.
Co-author of “They Say/I Say” handbook, Gerald Graff, analyzes in his essay “Hidden Intellectualism” that “street smarts” can be used for more efficient learning and can be a valuable tool to train students to “get hooked on reading and writing” (Graff 204). Graff’s purpose is to portray to his audience that knowing more about cars, TV, fashion, and etc. than “academic work” is not the detriment to the learning process that colleges and schools can see it to be (198). This knowledge can be an important teaching assistant and can facilitate the grasping of new concepts and help to prepare students to expand their interests and write with better quality in the future. Graff clarifies his reasoning by indicating, “Give me the student anytime who writes a sharply argued, sociologically acute analysis of an issue in Source over the student who writes a life-less explication of Hamlet or Socrates’ Apology” (205). Graff adopts a jovial tone to lure in his readers and describe how this overlooked intelligence can spark a passion in students to become interested in formal and academic topics. He uses ethos, pathos, and logos to establish his credibility, appeal emotionally to his readers, and appeal to logic by makes claims, providing evidence, and backing his statements up with reasoning.
Traditional theories of intelligence do not account for the ambiguity of classes such as philosophy or for the wide range of interests a child can have. For example, contemporary theories such as Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence and Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences both account for more than the general intelligence accounted for in traditional intelligence theories. According to Robert Sternberg’s Successful (Triarchic) Theory of Intelligence, are Hector’s difficulties in philosophy indicative of future difficulties in the business world? According to Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence, Hector’s difficulty in philosophy will not negatively affect his future. Sternberg would instead focus on elements of successful intelligence like Hector’s involvement and contribution as an individual, as opposed to relying on intelligence measured by tests.
Gerald Graff gives his own experience from when he was a younger child growing up in his neighborhood (200). He shares how his friends and himself had to find a common ground between being strong (street smart) and being intelligent (book smart). Graff explains that he needed to find this balance in between the two not only to fit in, but also because he still wanted to do well in school. He goes on to explain how being intelligent outside of school actually taught him more than what he learned while in school. Graff expands on this idea when he states, "I began to learn the rudiments of the intellectual life: how to make an argument, weigh different kinds of evidence, move between particulars and generalizations, summarize the views of others and enter a conversation about ideas" (201).
In today’s society, people require better education to get high paying jobs. Therefore, parents always force their child to have good education even though their child is not interested in that particular career. Before, parent force them they should find out that is their child a street smart or a book smart? After that they can encourage them to pursue their career in that direction. In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff argues that street smarts can be considered as same as book smarts. Similarly, Graff’s idea relates to the TV show called Suits, it’s a show about how lawyer have to deal with their client. They both work for one firm; this firm only allows Harvard graduates students to work there. There are two main characters in this show called Mike Ross and Harvey Specter. They both have different education Mike is a college dropout and Harvey graduated from Harvard Law School. But, Mike has a photographic memory which allows him to remember anything he read or see for long time. Harvey finds out that Mike consume knowledge that Harvard student do not have. So, he hire Mike as his firm as an associate but without letting anyone know that he does not have Harvard law school degree. Even though Graff has written an essay and suits is a TV show about lawyer, they are actually in agreement about the important idea that street smart are same as book smart. Therefore, Gerald Graff’s ideas about how people can be educated without formal education, show their intelligence in different way, and how street smart influences on book smart. These can be used to understand the TV show called Suits.
Gerald Graff’s Hidden Intellectualism points out flaws between what he calls “street smarts,” and school learning, or book smarts. It is implied in the article that street smarts are things that are not taught in school, or not promoted on campus. According to the author, you cannot make it in life with only one or the other. In his mind, street smarts have a non-intellectual connotation and book smarts do not have this stigma. Graff holds the opinion that to get students more interested in intellectual discussions, schools and colleges should include extracurricular interests to hold student’s attention. He believes by assigning readings that interest a student, such as a magazine like Sports