In, “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff takes a deeper look into the argument of “street smart” versus “book smarts” and why one is viewed to be more “intellectual” than the other. The essay is adapted from his 2003 book, “Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind”. Graff, a professor of English and Education at the University of Illinois in Chicago, wrote this book to persuade his audience, whom of which could be anyone at any age with “book smarts” or “street smarts” (specifically those involved in the world of education), to think deeper about “street smarts” and how they can allow us to become more intellectual than maybe “book smarts” can. He questions the validity of the current education system and suggests that instead of using the age old standard texts, we begin with texts that are interesting to our own minds. …show more content…
He cites thoughts from Elvis Presley, his own childhood, and the general public, all of which can be seen as reliable and convincing. While the three can’t be proven from exact data, they still help persuade the audience. Starting with Mr. Presley, during the 1956 election, he supported Adlia over Ike and stated “I don’t dig the intellectual bit, but I’m telling you man, he knows the most.” This shows us some insight into the thoughts at the time when the author was a child. As for the general public, the author brings up the example of Marilyn Monroe. In 1956, she married playwright Arthur Miller after divoricing the retired baseball star Joe Dimaggio. It seemed to the public that she chose the “geek” over the “jock” and that maybe people were starting to prefer the first of the
In Carol Dweck’s article titled, “Brainology” Dweck discusses the different mindsets that students have about intelligence. Some where taught that each person had a set amount of intelligence, while others were trained that intelligence is something they could develop and increase over time. in Dweck’s article she writes, “ It is a belief that intelligence can be developed that opens students to a love of learning, a belief in the power of effort and constrictive, determined reactions to setbacks” (Dweck pg. 2). Dweck is talking about a growth mind-set in which is how students perceive the growth of knowledge and that no one person is born with a certain amount of intelligence, it too can be trained and developed over time. By introducing Dweck’s ideas of a growth mind-set to students, students will enjoy learning and be less devastated by setbacks, because they know they can develop intelligence. Dweck also writes that students with a growth mind-set, “believe that intelligence is something that can be cultivated through effort and education. They
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 the essay ”Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, he discusses different types of intellect, more specifically the ways they can apply to us in our lives. He discusses the different types of “smarts” referred to in his paper as street smarts, and school smarts. Graff hints upon the missed opportunities by colleges to embrace the form of intellect called “street smarts” because of a preconceived idea that there is no way to use this form of knowledge in an academic setting. To quote Graff directly “Colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts”. We then learn some of Graffs personal experiences pertaining to this very thing. He shares a story about himself which reviews his underlying love for sports and complete diskliking for books or any form of intellectualism, until he became college aged. He shares that he now believes, his love of sports over over school work was not because he hated intellectualism but perhaps it was intellectualism in another form. He shares his
Development of Rhetorical and Analytical Skills through Sports. 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 interests as writing topics, but instead to teach the students on how to implement those compelling interests and present them in a scholarly way.
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.
The average human would think that going to school and getting an education are the two key items needed to make it in life. Another common belief is, the higher someone goes with their education, the more successful they ought to be. Some may even question if school really makes anyone smarter or not. In order to analyze it, there needs to be recognition of ethos, which is the writer 's appeal to their own credibility, followed by pathos that appeals to the writer’s mind and emotions, and lastly, logos that is a writer’s appeal to logical reasoning. While using the three appeals, I will be analyzing “Against School” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto that gives a glimpse of what modern day schooling is like, and if it actually help kids
A person who has the ability to think critically, experienced conflicts, educated is known as an intellectual person. Author Malcolm Gladwell agrees with all of Gerald Graff’s asserts. In the article, “Hidden Intellectualism” and “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” authors Graff and Gladwell both insists that knowledge does not only belong to those people who are educated, but also it belong to the people who gets scholarly from media or from the environment, known as “street smarts”. Gladwell and Graff, both supports education, critical thinking, and wisdom delineates intellectualism.
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.
Graff points out many young people with street smarts struggle to translate their intelligence into the academic world. He says schools may be at fault for failing to foster street smarts as a viable option to produce quality academic work. Focusing primarily on traditional academic sources, like philosophers, critically acclaimed writers, and historical events, schools overlook topics such as but games, cars, television, or fashion (Graff 245). There seems to be little correlation between traditionally established subjects and the ability to generate thoughtful, in-depth discussion and comprehensive learning. (Graff 245).
Gerald Graff analyzed the discussions he had with his friend about their interests, “complicated debate about …. who is the toughest guy in the school yard…” (Graff 246) explained about his hatred for book and school work and his preferences for sport and materials that were related to sport. He viewed himself as an anti – intellectual “ “…. I was your typical anti-intellectual- or so I believed at the time…”. Later in his life, Graff realized that what he was doing with his friends was learning “the regiment of intellectual life: how to make arguments, weigh different kinds of evidence ………… and enter conversations about idea”. They were developing “intellect by other means”” Skills which he applied to school and other areas of his life.
The future of this country, and the planet as a whole, rests upon how well-educated our youth are. They will one day be leading this world, and contemporary leaders must ensure that that is a success. Consequently, education is always a hotly contested issue. The way we teach kids now shapes the days of tomorrow, and everyone gives their full effort toward implementing an educational system that they believe is right. Professor Gerald Graff puts forth his opinion in the essay, “Hidden Intellectualism.” He argues that schools fail a multitude of students by ignoring their interests in subjects generally considered to be non-academic, such as cars, sports, television, or video games (Graff p. 198). He cites sports specifically as a personal example, saying that discussions pertaining to athletics taught him many different argumentative and literary skills before his teachers even tried to (Graff p. 202).
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.
Street smarts are intellectual resources that are ignored by schools. It is the most informal version of intellect, generally relating to hobbies that seem anti-intellectual. Gerald Graff’s journal article Hidden Intellectualism shows that everyone is an intellectual whether they are aware of it or not. Using mainly ethos, he describes how sports can be a form of intellectualism because of the use of logic. He says it beautifully here, “I see now that sports provided me with something comparable to the saturation of life by argument… that my preference for sports over schoolwork was not anti-intellectualism so much as intellectualism by other means.”
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.