Essay on Overview of Learning

In his essay titled “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff questions the traditional academic approach that correlates the school curriculum of colleges and high schools with intelligence. He believes that schools may not be promoting the full potential of students because they rely too much on the academic skills rather than the topics themselves. This means that schools often focus on the analysis and interpretation of academic papers rather than considering expanding the curriculum to have more topics that interest students. As a result, many students cannot express their true potential because they cannot get engaged in these school enforced topics. Schools underestimate their “hidden intelligence” because they do not try to promote their

The United State’s education system pay noticeably more attention to appear intelligent rather than actually being intelligent. As a scholar in the United States, I felt compelled to rely heavily on my ability to memorize to achieve success in the future rather than taking the time and effort to engage in deeper learning.

When one speaks of intelligence or how bright another person is, the often quoted figure is the IQ or intelligence quotient. It is the most often used standard of how smart a person is. This paper shall look at what intelligence tests measure, how the IQ tests measure intelligence and interrogate their history. It shall then apply the tests to school policy and hence evaluate their validity.

Knowledge isn’t all about what people know or how well they are in school. IQ tests test the intelligence of the person; however they test the pure thinking capacity rather than what people know. This means that intelligence comes from the entire cognitive thinking ability and not what they

Most people, when asked, say that a person is intelligent if they have “book smarts.” People that are book smart can write and converse about subjects taught in school. On the other hand, people with “street smarts” aren’t seen as intellectuals because the subjects they are knowledgeable about are not traditional. In his essay called “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff insists that schools and colleges are missing an opportunity to translate street smarts into academic work.

Additionally, Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” There are different forms of intelligence that go beyond what our school system measures. Students are not a unit to be measured, and students cannot be assigned a numerical value to identify their intelligence. Students are diverse—they learn at different speeds, and they learn in different ways. Focusing solely on test scores is hurting our students and deviating away from building our society on success and excellence. Critics are slowly realizing the problems associated with standardized tests—they create anxiety, they are extremely biased, and they do not measure the ability to think deeply.

One’s intelligence cannot simply be measured based on his or her educational background. Intellect is spawned from within based on an individual’s experience and desire for additional knowledge. In the article, "Blue-Collar Brilliance", Mike rose contends the egocentric notion regarding what makes an individual intelligent; western civilization has drug on their fascistic opinions since earlier times. Everything including one 's intellectual capabilities has been measured by a hierarchy designed by the white man in order to oppress non-white civilization. Our intellectual capacity is bigger than a formal education; Intelligence that is acquired outside of the classroom is commensurate to those who have solemn educations.

In his essay Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff emphasizes the idea that to be an intellectual one does not have to excel in school. Graff argues that a person’s intelligence should not be measured by solely what they learned and how they progressed through school, rather, intelligence should be measured by more secular standards. Throughout the essay, Graff provides many examples on how this biased view of intellectualism affected him and others in his childhood and how he suggests that school curriculum be changed to better reflect the different types of intellectualism.

Many cultures express to people at a young age those with “book smarts” are far more intelligent than those who are “street smart.” It is a common misconception that one must rely solely on academia to be considered an intellectual. In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff proposes, “street smarts beat out book smarts” (268). Learning from everyday life, whether good or bad, and cultivating ways to adapt or overcome life’s obstacles is a true sign of intelligence. Life experiences contribute to the evolution of character that defines people. Intelligence should not be solely based on institutional learning but in conjunction with real life experiences and self-development from personal interests.

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

In an educational world full of standardized testing, rigid curriculums, and, apathetic educators, Gerald Graff and Steven Johnson attempt to redefine what it means to be a true intellectual. Both writers are intent on shining a light on the gray area between the black and white grades of the classroom. Although Graff and Johnson focus on two different aspects of intelligence, both of them are determined to expand the definition of brilliance and ensure its cultivation in modern youth.

Passion and determination towards long term goals (otherwise known as ‘grit’) are parts of cognitive development. (Kantrowitz 2016). Grit is seen to be necessary for academic expertise in all fields ranging from sciences to the arts. (Ericsson, Prietula and Cokely 2007). Natural born Intelligence Quotient, also known as ‘IQ’, is described as a person’s ability to complete problems and understand concepts. This is compared across the population to give an average IQ score (Latham 2006). However, can this number accurately measure whether a human will become an expert in a field sooner than a grittier person? The focus of this essay is to evaluate whether grit or IQ has the most positive effect on cognitive development.

The learning perspective what is it? This is the study of how exactly a person is effected through what they learn on a daily basis. Through family, their surroundings and behavior. The people who believe this line of thinking are called behaviorists. Many people look at the learning perspective in a suspiciouse manner not believeing or trusting any of the experiments. But there are many contributions and many limitations of the learning perspective.

There are many different kinds of ways that people and animals learn. People can adjust the way they learn to the different situations in which they are learning and what they have to learn. One form of learning is known as conditioning. Conditioning emphasises the relationship between stimuli and responses. The two types of conditioning found are Classical conditioning and Operant conditioning. Learning may occur in different ways. Psychologists have distinguished between different types of learning, these being Observational Learning and Insight Learning.

Many times a student will “memorize” what they need to know on the test. They will not truly memorize the material because they will soon forget it after the test. Since test taking is generally the only way that people are evaluated upon, this leads to society having more smart kids than intelligent ones. Kids will often get into college because they are smart, but many times they can’t solve a complex problem because they lack that intellect to do so. There are many intelligent people who never go to college because they have an idea that they need to get out to the world. This is possibly why many inventors and successful college dropouts are innovative individuals that start a business to help them gain wealth. There are far more smart people than there are intelligent ones.