...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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...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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...Last year was the best year in North Carolina's history with a graduation rate of “85.4 percent” (NC State Board of Education). The title of the article is “Hidden Intellectualism” from the book Clueless in Academe; How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind by Gerald Graff. The book was written in 2003. The purpose of this text is to teach people that people can be taught to use academic methods and thoughts for items in the domain of “street smarts” Graff tries to tell readers about different intelligence and how they could be reached. Often they are deemed street smart and told and treated as if it is incompatible with academics. To overcome this he tells about his experiences bridging both and how others can do this. In “Hidden Intellectualism”graff uses a unique style of writing to show how we can write about subjects usually considered non-intellectual in an academic way. he does this by mixing a professional style of writing with a simple and easy to understand style of writing using reminders of childhood and modern language. The book that the essay is from was released short after the passing of “No Child Left Behind”. This legislation was an attempt to...
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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 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 his article, ‘Hidden Intellectualism,’ Gerald Graff’s main point is, street smart people can be just as, if not maybe more intellectual than people who are book smart. Everyone is smart in their own different ways. Graff goes on and talks about whether he is “street smart,” or “book smart.” Graff thinks that he was street smart. The author states, “Nor do we consider one of the major reasons why schools and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street smarts: the fact that we associate those street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns.” What I think he is trying to say is, most teaching industries over look some of the important things in life. Some things that schools do not teach, like how to do taxes, or fill out a mortgage....
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...In the story “Hidden Intellectualism” written by; Gerald Graff, is about how schools and college’s make mistakes by not valuing street smarts, but academic skills. The reason street smarts are undervalued is because, they aren’t associated with academic skills. Since in the story Gerald Graff explained his interest in sports illustrated books, which he thought wasn’t intellectual to him or others. However, the author; Gerald Graff also mentioned “that one major reason why schools and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street smarts; is the fact that we associate those street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns”(p.244). Students need to be exposed to intellectual writing, but need to write about what interest them. In the story; Gerald Graff discussed that “the educational life, and the life of the mind, is too narrowly and...
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...In the short passage, “Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff, the author emphasizes that students will do well in an intellectual talk if the students can relate more to the topic.Graff gives examples of this by referring to sports and his childhood encounters. The passage guides us through the author’s thinking and way of how he became this hidden intellect without even knowing it and how sports prepared him. Graff suggests that the world of sports is more captivating than school, “because it was more intellectual” (267,Graff) When it comes to sports or what people like, there is a higher probability that, that person will succeed in an intellectual debate. “There’s no necessary relation between the degree of interest a student shows in a text or subject and the quality of thought or expression such a student manifests in writing or talking about it.” (269, Graff) Graff acknowledges this by...
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... Communities may also feel the same affect when someone’s intellect is not accepted as the norm; in this case, street smarts is looked downed upon. In the essay, “Hidden Intellectualism” Gerald Graff explains the troubles these students face when trying to apply their own street smarts towards an education. Graff starts his essay arguing how the academic system is flawed and that it overlooks an important aspect in capturing a persons interest and revealing their intellect; he says that a person’s true intellect will generally reveals itself; Graff then connects his thesis to George Orwell’s essay, “Cultural Meanings.” Graff then gives his own personal experience, he says that throughout his schooling, he...
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...In Gerald Graff’s excerpt, “Hidden Intellectualism” he explains how the school systems are to blame for the kids not wanting, or not being interested, in learning new material. He first discusses how there are two different types of smarts; “street smarts”, which is having the knowledge and experience to survive in a city, and “book smarts”, which is having knowledge by being well educated. Graff discusses how unusual it is for someone to be so intelligent and have such “street smarts”, but is not able to perform well in school. The reason is that these students are not able to find anything relatable to their likings, thus when they are being taught something they just tune it all out because it’s boring to them “We assume that it’s possible...
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...In the article “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, he speaks an abundance about his experiences with being an intellectual, and feeling satisfactory with it. When he was young, he never thought it was “cool” to be smart, or into reading, and he tried to “fit in” with the different crowds of people in his school and neighborhood, who were not known to be the brightest. Ultimately, bold figures in society no longer popularized this “idea” of street smarts being the means of knowledge, and started subtly promoting book smarts. By the end of the article, Graff makes the point that if schools began allowing students to write about things that interest them, such as sports or hobbies, rather than writers and novels, kids would not be so paranoid about being interested in literature and being an intellectual....
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...A wise man once said “A man can live on his wits and his balls for only so long” (Hunter S. Thompson, 1998) meaning that book smarts will only get you so far . In Gerald Graff article “ Hidden Intellectualism,” Graff states how intellect doesn't only come in scholarly form but can also come in the form of “streets smarts”. In today society Graff feels that “schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such starters smarts and channel them into good academic work.” (P. 244) Meaning that schools are not making an enough into trying to combine the two. Many people often construe that street smarts are things you picked up in life and book smarts are your typical 100 average student. Graff feels that “ real intellectuals...
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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 the article Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff addresses the problem with intellectualism and the education system. He starts off by noting that most everyone knows someone else that may not exactly be the most studious person, but is incredibly street smart. This brand of smart is too often overlooked in school settings because, as Graff puts it, “we associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly exclusive with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic,” (Graff 244). Put simply, he states that the education system sees street smarts as anti-intellectual. Graff goes on to offer an anecdote from his own life. Throughout primary school, he never cared for books assigned to him in class,...
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...Having a Balance Based off the article “Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff” this challenges the thought that if you are street smart the colleges will dismiss your ability to do well. Schools are missing the opportunity to combine what might interest a student into a more intellectualizing operation. Street smart students are missing the chance of combining both worlds; nonacademic interests and making them academic areas to study. There needs to be a balance between studying a nonacademic interest or only studying academic areas in college. According to the College Board, the average cost of college tuition is $31,231 for a private college and $9,139 for state residents at public colleges for one year. The cost of college is very expensive. Students need to take advantage of learning as much as they can to better themselves for their future. It is important to be a well-rounded student. At times, the topic that is being studied seems to have no relevance to our lives but years later we recall the subject and can speak accurately on the topic or use the skills we learned years past. This is the responsibility of the college to determine what a well-defined student needs to learn and...
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