Richard Graff 's Hidden Intellectualism By 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 Hank Hill's short essay What in the Name of High School Football? He implies that some High schools focus too much on each of their athletic accomplishments and not enough on the visual and performing arts. Hill supports this claim with his word choice and diction. Hills purpose is to point out the unfair and lopsided views of society when it comes to extracurricular activities. Hill takes on an almost upset tone in order to expose the major problem that continues to affect society today. Based on Hills tone word choice and topic this piece seems to be directed at the school administrators and high school students.

Graff’s main purpose in writing this essay is to critique the education system and its inability to divulge the hidden treasures of knowledge encased in student’s hobbies, street smarts, extracurricular actives and social interest. Graff gives a supporting experience to his claim by using his childhood as it relates to this issue. His love of sports and unending quest

Graff effectively uses ethos in his article by discussing a personal anecdote as well as utilizing some intelligent diction. When arguing that students would be more inclined to engage in an academic mindset if they were able to apply their own interests, Graff states, “I offer my own adolescent experience as a case in point” (245). By claiming that he personally struggled with academic engagement, Graff influences the audience to perceive him as a credible source. Not only does Graff prove his ethos through his personal anecdote, but he also builds his ethos by using impressive, complex diction. For example, Graff uses scholarly words such as “philistine,” “interminable,” and “rudiments” in order to present himself as a qualified, intelligent resource (247). By establishing his credibility, Graff strategically influences the audience to be convinced of his argument.

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.

Graff shares with us his personal experiences on how reading intellectually converted him from being street smart to book smart. Graff now urges colleges and schools to teach students the importance of reading intellectually as well as writing. "If I am right, then schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study. It is self defeating to decline to introduce any text or subject that figures to engage students who will otherwise tune out academic work entirely" (Graff, 270). By this, Gerald Graff means schools should encourage students to take their areas of interest and apply them to their education. All in hopes that students will one day feel comfortable enough to step outside

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

In the article “Hidden Intellectualism” written by Gerald Graff, Graff target college students to inform them about a hidden intellectualism that can be found in our everyday society. In the article Graff draws attention to the many types and ways different people can identify with intellectualism. He argues that people are intelligent in several ways and just need to learn how to plug the intellectualism they enjoy into a school-like setting during classes. He exemplifies this by using his own intellect within sports and such as an adolescent. While being very analytical of sports team movies, and the toughness he and his friends engaged in, he was unknowingly before now trained to be intellect in a class room and other school subjects.

I see Gerald Graff’s story to be support for students and kids who don’t believe in themselves. For a student that seems like nothing in school is going right for them and their grades are down that they can read this story and realize they are smart, it just needs to be also channeled into academics. I have always seen myself as a more of a street-smart person just because of

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

Sports, especially football, are a major part of the universities in the United States. Many times they are valued over education. Many college athletes end up getting a poor education, because they tend to look at how the universities sports teams are doing rather than the level of education they will be getting. Steven Salzburg notices this problem and writes about it in his article “Get Football Out of Our Universities.” He acknowledges the fact that we have prioritized a game used to entertain people over the education of Americans and that this trend has to come to an end. According to him, football needs to be removed from the university system in order to avoid becoming “the big, dumb jock on the world stage” (1). Salzburg uses a combination of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos in an unsuccessful effort to persuade universities and avid football fans that the interest in football is jeopardizing our advances in science, technology, engineering, and math.

In Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism” we get to hear a new perspective on the early academic world. He grew up as a kid that was not interested in pursuing anything relating to school as an academic focus. He was more interested in things like sports. As he went through his early academic career he was convinced that he was a typical “anti-intellectual” and because of this he often felt alienated by school and regularly found himself very bored. As he continued to dislike average academics and pursue his interest in sports, he realized that the two were not as far off intellectually as he had previously assumed.

In the essay, Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff there was a lot of comparing between “street smarts” and “book smarts”. He talks about how people are different intellectually. More students may be interested in class or writing a paper is it is on a topic that they’re interested in. (244-251)

In the reading written “Hidden Intellectualism “ by Gerald Graff, he states how society is being related to “street smart” and intellectualism. Graff states that understanding can be part of “ street smart “, Graff argues with life experience as text and subjects that show no interest in learning cause there some students would rather learn about subject that actually interest them more which is very encouraging to rather not doing the one which don’t interest us. Street smart has made life a bit difficult as when there are boundaries that separate smart with the hood, when Graff states that in Chicago there were boundaries of “clean-cut “ and “hoods” like be smart or get beaten. Graff has proven that “street smart “ can overcome the society