...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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...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 “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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...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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...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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...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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...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 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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...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 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 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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...Many people have shared a problem that has kept them from reaching their full potential in academic studies. One place where students have trouble is when they are unable to relate to course work material, but have a knowledge of their own. 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 discussions of higher education, one controversial issue has been the lack of finding success by going to college. Some believe that college is vital and is the place to gain or achieve success. But for others college doesn’t always mean high success rate and it’s a place where people gain knowledge that may or may not translate into success in life. On the other hand, some people choose not to go to college and they found success in the job market. Ultimately, Charles Murray a highly respected scholar at the American Enterprise Institution, seems to believe that education is a valuable tool and only if it allows people to have a static set of knowledge and also have well-paying jobs. But Gerald Graff an author of Hidden Intellectualism...
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