Education. I believe it to be one of the greatest gifts this world could give us. My mother always told me that knowledge is power and that I could never learn enough. She taught me to love being the best I could be and to always want to know more, to question everything. There have been countless times that life has tried to take away my mom’s faith and strength, but she always felt the need to keep herself educated. When she needed to get somewhere, she walked. She had to. This improved her sense of direction and helped her in receiving a job as a postal carrier. From there, she became a federal police officer for the U.S. Postal Service. Working her way up, she was able to become a successful manager at a postal plant. But to get …show more content…
This is because in secondary education, we are being prepared for adulthood. You can take the information you were given and use it to achieve the goals you had thought or dreamed about throughout high school. Instead of struggling to learn the primary material all at once while finding a job, you already have that knowledge by finishing school. Not only does high school prepare you for life by giving you basic education, it also gives you the chance to develop or search new interests you may not be aware of. Through elective classes, you can explore different subjects that could turn into a potential major. Not all schools offer this, but most of them do. If they do, it is something to always take advantage of. If not, you could always get volunteer hours to build up your resume for jobs or if you do have the intention on going to college and expand your mind. It is better to volunteer during high school because it shows that you have a strong work ethic and are determined to succeed in and serious about what you want to do. For me, the competitive environment that high school belongs to can be a good thing considering the fact that it allows students to push themselves instead of slacking off. It is easy to get more involved in a competitive atmosphere because some people like to be better than everyone else. And that’s okay. Being more involved brings me to another statement in which Graff says that sports debates and other
Society believes there are two types of people, when it comes to dexterity.There are those who have the knowledge and skills necessary for academics. And then there are those who seem to be full of information about life itself, but do not appear to have perception, when it comes to school. I define “Book smart” as someone who is intelligent and well educated academically. For example a straight A student, or a person who can in a heart beat, give you an answer about history, english, math, or science. On the other hand, a person who is considered “street smart” is one who is dull in school, but has a very bright mentality about life itself and common sense. In Hidden Intellectualism, from They Say I Say, Gerald Graff tells us about how he considered himself “street smart,” but unintentionally became quite an intellectual over time. Using a topic that interests a student is a better way of persuading them to learn, and help them discover they are intelligent in their own way. We should not classify things into different judgmental groups, there is hidden intellectualism amongst every person although we all experience it differently based on past exposures.
Senior year I was trying to puzzle together this geometry problem in my mind. I couldn’t figure it out, I felt like I hit a brick wall and couldn’t break through it to solve the problem. Maybe if I reworded the problem to be similar to a real world situation I could solve it. In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, his thesis is that intellectualism is more valuable than academic intelligence. Graff begins talking about how schools fail to reach into the minds of kids who are street smart and connect that into their academic school work. He states that students would be more willing to take the academic intellectual characteristic if the schools would engage them into subjects they are interested in, rather than what the teachers think. Graff then opens up to a personal
The essay Hidden Intellectualism is based upon whether street smart should be considered equal with academic intelligence. Many people have remarkable street intelligence, but have very little academic intelligence. The author of the essay, Gerald Graff uses his personal examples before college of possessing street smarts then developing academic intelligence. More often than not students prefer video games, clothes designers and sports. “It’s a good bet that students get hooked on reading and writing by doing term papers on Source, they will eventually get to On Liberty” (Graff, pg 250) most likely students would prefer reading a book and writing a paper on a topic of their choice, and be better informed about the subject to write the paper,
In an excerpt from his essay “they say I say” titled “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff gives a compelling argument on how schools should capitalize off student’s street smarts to engage them intellectually. He believes that students are being fed a narrative that is inefficient to its purpose. To counter this inefficiency there should be an integration of things that interest the students with their academics.
Gerald Graff’s article “Hidden Intellectualism” asserts that academic settings, such as public schools, need to incorporate students’ personal interests into the school policy so that students are more inclined to engage in an academic mindset. The problem, however, is that the school systems do not attempt to tie non-academic material with academic assignments, therefore neglecting students the opportunity to engage in intriguing, intellectual conversation (Graff 245). Targeting students, educators, and administrators, Graff makes an effective explicit, qualified claim of policy as he utilizes the rhetorical strategies of ethos, logos, and pathos.
The issue being debated in the article “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff is street smarts versus book smarts. Gerald Graff is an English professor at the University of Illinois and has written many books. The author claims that people are better off if they are more street smart than book smart. The authors is very persuasive using real life examples. I although disagree with this claim. I think that you need an equal mix of both street and book smarts.
“Hidden Intellectualism,” an excerpt from They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff, explains the importance of having diverse intellectualism and helping the kids with street smart intellectualism turn it into academic growth. The author’s claim in this excerpt is that school and colleges are missing out on an opportunity of helping the street smart kids grow their intelligence into good academic work. The significance in the author’s claim is that the students who believe they don’t have much of an opportunity in school or other things related to academics, realize they do.
Everyone knows some young person who is impressively street smart but does poorly in school. What a waste, we think, that one who is so intelligent about so many things in life seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work. This is how Gerald Graff’s essay titled “Hidden Intellectualism" begins. Although this is not Graff's personal belief, he is approaching us with a common stereotype. After reading Graff's article I would say that I agree with him from beginning to end. Gerald Graff begins with differentiating between “book smarts” and “street smarts". Book smart is defined as a person who is intelligent and very well educated academically. People that are book smart can write and discuss subjects taught in school. On the
In Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff, he begins with the argument of “street-smarts” versus “school-smarts”. Graff explains that school-smarts can be hidden within street smarts and can be learnt through not just talking with friends, but also from the media and our surroundings, hence the “hidden” intellectualism. He goes onto explain that “schools and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street-smarts” (198) because these types of intellectualism are actually considered anti-intellectualism. Graff then begins to discuss that intellectualism is often looked down upon within schools, and people that are considered “school-smart” are seen as nerdy, or boring. We learn that as a child, Graff was afraid of bullying and
When it comes to the topic of hidden intellectualism, most of us will readily agree that a lot of students are seen to have an issue with it. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of is it the students fault. Whereas some are convinced it is, others maintain it is at the fault of the teachers or professors. Gerald Graff has his argument that in many cases book smarts can be hidden in street smarts. I believe that kids that struggle with their talents being hidden behind “street smarts” need a certain amount of attention and focus to help them acquire their abilities and strengths.
“Hidden Intellectualism” an article written by Gerald Graff is a very interesting piece of writing intended for the audience of high school and college educators. Throughout the text Graff argues that high schools and colleges are failing to incorporate topics that interest street smart students into the school system, which is therefore resulting in street smart students failing to do well academically in high school and college. He uses his own personal anecdote to support this. Graff successfully persuades his audience that high school and colleges can develop a student’s intellectualism by using topics that already interests students. He successfully does this through the use of development, conventions, and evidence.
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
Contained within Gerald Graff’s, “Hidden Intellectualism,” are several eye opening ideas. Graff main point in his essay, is that non-intellectual topics can be written or talked about in an academic way. Graff uses his past stating that he has street smarts, and that it was a form knowledge. In a way, he negatively scrutinizes the public education for overlooking the intellect of those who aren 't skilled academically. One thing that I believe is very fundamental is that he says, “They would be more prone to take on intellectual identities if we encouraged them to do so at first on subjects that interest them rather than ones that interest us.” He puts it plain and simple that you can take street topics and make them into intellectual debates.
With today’s education, teachers are enforcing much academic work on students to, hopefully, increase their intelligence. The goal of this academic work is to give the students that they will need for their life later. All schools have a group of students that have a lot of “street smarts,” but don’t do well in school. There is a common argument of if “street smarts” and academic work should be combined to better teach students. In Gerald Graff’s piece, Hidden Intellectualism, Graff talks about the academics that teachers enforce on students and “street smarts.” Graff claims 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” (Graff 1).
Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” refutes the age-old idea that ‘street smarts’ are anti-intellectual. Instead, Graff suggests that “schools and colleges are at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into academic smarts.” (244). In saying this, Graff argues that lacking book smarts does not render a person unintelligent. Rather, educational institutions need to find a way to effectively use this format of intellectualism to produce academic intelligence. Graff goes on to point out that society associates ‘weighty’ subjects, like Shakespeare, with intellectualism, but not less serious subjects, such as sports. In consideration of this omission on society’s part, Graff emphasizes to the