... 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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...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 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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...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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...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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...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 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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...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 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, 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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...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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...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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...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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...Victoria Barkon December 15, 2014 ENG 890 Reflection Essay- final draft Reflection essay Writing has not always been my strongest subject in school; in fact it has always been my weakest just because I had always struggled with grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc. I have always end up with bad grades in whatever writing classes I took. But as the semester is coming to an end I can honestly say I have learned and improved on a lot as both a writer and a student. One skill I believe I have improved on is the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. Another skill I have improved on is sentence punctuation strategies: run-ons, comma splices, fragments and comma usage issues. Reading and study of professional essay was one of the skills I learned during the semester. Lastly I had learned how to demonstrate my abilities as a developing writer by: attending class regularly, prepared and on time, and participating actively. The first skill I learned and improved on a lot this semester was the writing process and what it came with such as prewriting, drafting, revising editing, and proofreading. I especially improved on this skill when I wrote my narrative essay. For example I had to write three drafts, first, second and then the finally draft. The first draft was me prewriting and getting all my ideals down. For my second draft I had to go for peer review and...
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...Beginning theory An introduction to literary and cultural theory Second edition Peter Barry © Peter Barry 1995, 2002 ISBN: 0719062683 Contents Acknowledgements - page x Preface to the second edition - xii Introduction - 1 About this book - 1 Approaching theory - 6 Slop and think: reviewing your study of literature to date - 8 My own 'stock-taking' - 9 1 Theory before 'theory' - liberal humanism - 11 The history of English studies - 11 Stop and think - 11 Ten tenets of liberal humanism - 16 Literary theorising from Aristotle to Leavis some key moments - 21 Liberal humanism in practice - 31 The transition to 'theory' - 32 Some recurrent ideas in critical theory - 34 Selected reading - 36 2 Structuralism - 39 Structuralist chickens and liberal humanist eggs Signs of the fathers - Saussure - 41 Stop and think - 45 The scope of structuralism - 46 What structuralist critics do - 49 Structuralist criticism: examples - 50 Stop and think - 53 Stop and think - 55 39 Stop and think - 57 Selected reading - 60 3 Post-structuralism and deconstruction - 61 Some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism - 61 Post-structuralism - life on a decentred planet - 65 Stop and think - 68 Structuralism and post-structuralism - some practical differences - 70 What post-structuralist critics do - 73 Deconstruction: an example - 73 Selected reading - 79 4 Postmodernism - 81 What is postmodernism? What was modernism? -...
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