In “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff argues the difference between “book smarts” (intellectualism) and “street smarts.” Graff explains that some people take on different approaches and interests certain subjects not related to “book smarts”, such as sports, television, fashion, etc. Everyone has a variation of both “book” and “street” smarts, but one is more profound than the other in a person, thus making the other a form of “hidden intellectualism”. He then claims that intellectualism in someone is often belittled and labeled as being geeky. As a kid, he was afraid to show his intellectual side in fear that he would be bullied and made fun of. Graff then stresses the importance to teach kids this intellectualism because they might believe there is only one way to learn. He explains that kids can make an easier transition into more intellectual subjects than adults. …show more content…
Rose believes that any type of job, blue or white collar, deserves equal appreciation and respect. His mom, Rosie, was a waitress. Her job was to take orders, understand the time it took to cook each meal, and memorize where each order was taken. As a waitress, you must master all of those tasks with just little pay and long shifts. Rose talks about his Uncle Joe building up a career since he was in 9th grade. While working at General Motors, the “uneducated man” was able to redesign nozzles for cost and health and rotating his co-workers so everyone could get more frequent breaks. Both cases show that school education cannot solely identify a person’s degree of
Hidden Intelligence vs. Hidden Satire When writing their essays, Gerald Graff and Antonia Peacocke both look at the intellectual side of topics not commonly thought to require a high level of intelligence. Graff refers to multiple nontraditional subjects like sports, cars, and fashion, while Peacocke focuses only on the TV show, Family Guy. Both of the articles express the idea that things at first glance may not seem to have an intellectual aspect, but as they are further analyzed, the content can have a deeper meaning than ever imagined. In Gerald Graff’s essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” he discusses the basic “street smart” verses the “book smart” individual in the academic world.
Having never taken a college writing course before, I did not know what to expect and therefore assumed that I would choose my own topic to write about; of course, this isn’t the case. However, if I had the choice, I would not have chosen to write a response to Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism”. After going through his essay with a fine-tooth comb, I have found a few flaws in his reasoning. Gerald Graff believes that schools and colleges are not taking advantage of “street smarts” by not using them in an intellectual setting when in fact, schools are providing students with a large assortment of other knowledge and skills. In Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism”, he argues for the importance of changing school curriculums in order to better reflect the interests
“Everyone knows some young person who is impressively "street smart" but does poorly in school” (Graff). In Hidden Intellectualism written by Gerald Graff he started his writing off by talking about his main argument which was that the school systems had some major flaws that needed to be addressed. Graff argued that the schools should not only focus on the academic parts but also the nonacademic parts that could be used in real life situations. He ensured that he would get his message across by using Pathos (emotions), Ethos (credibility), and Logos (logic). He made sure to use Pathos, Ethos, and Logos by including personal stories, a strong tone His intended audience were teachers, students, and school boards.
In Hidden Intellectualism article, Gerald Graff begins the article with talking about “street smart” and that not everyone have to be good in school to be considered smart. He also said that schools and colleges overlook the intellectual of street smart. For Gerald Graff he noticed that he had intellectual when he noticed that he was using reason and arguments to talk about sports with his friends. Then Graff moves to saying that Intellectuals is looked down at and that he was scared to show the intellectual side of him because he was worried of people bullying him but when he was talking about sport he was sharing his intellectual without anyone knowing. Graf mentioned that sports is more intellectual than school.
In Gerald Graff's Hidden Intellectualism, he begins with a long lasting discussion about the the difference between “book smarts” and “streets smart”. Street smarts are frequently called “hoods” as they are the tough types and book smarts as the name suggests are typically referred to as “nerds or geeks”. Graff gives us insight on many cases of how these books smarts can take various forms, and hide in what people call street smarts, hence the “hidden Intellectualism”. He does this by sharing his story with us, growing up in his community where being “street smart” was more acceptable than being “book smart”. He would be bullied if he tried to pronounce words better than the others or spoke too intelligently around them, and as a result he
After I finished reading Gerald Graff's essay, Hidden Intellectualism, I found myself agreeing with the idea that intellectualism is not, and should not, be measured purely by "academic" means. "Street smarts" and "book smarts" are put at odds by Mr. Graff, and according to his writing, the rest of our culture. The essay attempts to make the assertion that at the heart of "real" intellectualism is the ability to turn almost any subject matter into something interesting, or even more important, a way to connect to the world and a community where the discussion is important. The theme of this essay involves the writer's own internal struggle with his personal history, along with the failing of our education system to bring out the best in students, using material in which they show real interest.
“My own working premise as a teacher is that inside every street-smart student there is latent intellectual trying to break out”. (23) Graff is willing to dig deep in able to get these students to understand and find that intellectual person that has always been inside them. Graff, I think feels if you push the students hard enough the intellectualism inside them will show through and come out in unexpected ways. I feel he also thinks if you can get the students to relate “street smarts” with classwork they will be able to put together connections with learning and therefore put connections together in life. Edmundson is concentrated on having students who are already in the high-level institutes have the intellectualism be outside of them and have it stay the same.
As Graff continues his essay he says that he was on the side of being more anti-intellectual and he found that through sports he was more interested in sports then he was in school. He would use this love for sports to build up his hidden intellectualism with sports. I think that Graff is right about what he is talking about with how we as a society think if you want to be smart them you need to do well in school and get all A’s or then you are not that smart.
“Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff starts off with an older argument between being book smart and street smart. Throughout the reading, Graff uses his own life experiences to critique the education system today. Points made focus on the idea of overlooking the intellectual potential of those who come across as being, “street smart”. Different authors cited in the reading to show how to accept another’s different intellectual. However, we realize that people who come across as being intellectual weren’t always labeled as that.
The reading "Hidden Intellectualism" by Gerald Graff reflects views on being "street smart" and "book smart." He explains that society tends to associate people who are intelligent on solely being "book smart" and performing well in academics, rather than being street smart. He goes on to further explain that students perhaps can be intelligent on topics that interest them. Graff opens up the reading by giving his own personal experience on feeling torn between trying to prove that he was smart yet fearing that he was overdoing it. He was trying to prove that he learned just as much about the real world by reading his sports books and magazines as he would have if he had read the classic works of literature like most students in school.
In ‘America Needs Its Nerds”, the author Leonid Fridman uses facts, reasoning, and emotional appeal to build his argument that smart individuals shouldn’t be penalized for their level of intelligence. He uses facts to show how people who work harder in school get treated differently. The author uses reasoning in order to help us understand his point of view. In additions the emotional appeal expressed by the who allows his readers to connect with him and take his words and argument more seriously. The rhetorical methods strengthen his argument and make him credible.
In his essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff criticizes schools “for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (244). Graff argues that intellectualism does not only have to be something that is achieved through this idea of “proper” education which is obtained through school work, but it can also come from the form of “street smarts” which is referred to those who learn things outside of an academic environment, for example their neighborhood. He makes a good point here because if a student is more interested in what is being taught, they will be more likely to engage in the lesson and obtain the information. Schools should give students the opportunity whether they are interested
Hidden Intellectualism In Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff introduces the reader to his article with the comment that street smart students are being labelled nonintellectual by colleges and schools professors since they do poorly in academic work and their interest is centered into sports, magazines, and video games; nonetheless, these nonintellectual students seem more intellectual than those called themselves intellectual. As a first argument, the author claims that being interested in sport and novel reading more than school work readings could be another form of being intellectual. As a personal example, Graff writes “Until I entered college, I hated books and cared only for sports” (265).
Graff feels that teachers should base some of their lesson on what students have a connection so they can be more focus because they are interested and not bored. He talks about how if schools and colleges will connect with the kids that are "Street Smart" they won't do a poor job in school they will do fairly better if they were more intact with the topic itself. Graff explains to us his growing up in the "hood" you were more respected for being street smart then you was for being book smart. It took a discussion about toughness for him to notice how intellectual he was, but he as just different from others , it wasn't about everything it was just about things he had a strong interest in. He noticed from how he us to have serious verbal altercations about sports and how he acknowledge the difference in players through
He also points out that people assume less time in school means that a person is less intelligent. First in Rose’s article he starts telling his personal experiences as a foundation for his claims to conceive the emotional effect towards the blue-collar workers. He writes about his family members to