Hidden Intellectualism Gerald Graff

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.

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.

In the article “Hidden Intellectualism,” the author Gerald Graff analyzes the difference of being book smart and being street smart. It questions why being book smart is seen superior to being street smart.

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.

“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.

Intellectualism is most often described as someone who has a vast amount of knowledge, is well spoken, and most people’s idea of intelligence is someone who is “book smart”. Book Smart would be described as someone who van write and converse about subjects that are most often taught in school. Another type of “smart” would be someone who is known as “street smart”. They are seen as intellectuals who are knowledgeable in the world around them, and today’s culture, and individuals who learn through personal experiences. In the essay Hidden Intellectualism, by Gerald Graff he insists

Graff never thought that he would research intellectualism, not even a bit. However, based on his hood experiences he didn’t know that he was in training for it. First of all, Graff described his neighborhood environment in Chicago as a postwar society. The hood was surrounded by people with a separate mind set, which made it hard to fit in. While it was hard to live there, he found his personal intellectualism inside the hood when he had to maintain a strong position for his arguments. Graff uses himself as an example too, when he decides to trade his preferred sports team, everyone that knew him would make fun of him and criticize his choice. He struggled to persuade his reasons to defend his new

are“street smart” rather than book smart (Graff 198). He speaks of how it is ridiculous that

As I read Gerald Graff’s Hidden Intellectualism I agree that “street smart” can also be adapted in a scholarly setting. Graff attest that “street smart” overpowers academic intellect. Graff uses his childhood experience to prove his arguments. I’m on Graff’s side of argument on his beliefs that “street smart” is gained before academic intellect. In my own experience as a child growing up, I was around agriculture from the day I was

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

In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Graff shares a passion for sports but is seen as a non academic activity compared to book smart people. Growing up, book smart people were those considered to enjoy academic studies while street smarts were considered athletes. Street smart students will be more engaged in writing an essay about sports, cars, fashion and other topics versus writing about Plato and Shakespeare. In Graffs own experience, he was torn between being smart or street smart because he feared that if he was too smart then the hoods wouldn’t accept him. Being tough was the only way to gain respect from the hoods, not

College has always been a process that introduces students to academic challenges that are not present during high school. So when my professor assigned Gerald Graff's essay, "Hidden Intellectualism", I thought this was his thesis. “Missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work." (Graff 142) I thought that this was his thesis because it explains the main idea of the essay but I assumed its purpose because of where it’s placed. I am so used to reading an essay in high school where the thesis is located right in the first paragraph. So naturally that is where I look for it. However, with more reading I knew that the following is the thesis, not only because it discusses the main topic, but

Langston Hughes “Theme for English B” and Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” portray racial separation and intellectual isolation, respectively. Hughes’ essay is poetic justice, and Graff’s is a call to arms. Hughes’ is short and to the point and is simply what it is, no arguing or convincing, just raw thought. Graff’s is highly intellectual; offering examples and reasoning, and it could even be seen as a not-quite-finished plea to the nation to reevaluate our education system. But the many differences in these articles are not what they seem. These so-called “differences” are really just distractions we choose to see on the surface, but in fact, the essays work together quite well. When examined closely, looking past the

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.

After reading Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff, I have learned, a lot of key points. Graff has brought up a lot of great factors that contribute to the topic of Intellectualism, one especially between, book smarts and street smarts. Graff criticizes people who think those who are street smarts are not intellectual. He believed any person can make any conversation into an intelligent conversation. I agreed with the fact that people who are street smart are judged unfairly just because they are not interested in academic work.