Essay about Street Smarts vs. Book Smarts in Academia

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.

“There must be many buried or hidden forms of intellectualism that do not get channeled into academic work…” (Graff 22), this said by non-other than Gerald Graff himself within his article “Hidden Intellectualism”. This quote being his overall main point of the entire article. Graff meaning that students can be intellectual even if they feel like they aren’t a book smart student. Graff argues that students who are street smart could also be intellectual. Within Graff’s article, there are a few arguments he makes that I agree with but also a few that I disagree with. “Hidden Intellectualism” offers various points about how every student possesses intellectualism but it’s also possible that not every student possesses this trait.

Do you think intelligence is a fixed trait? If you do, then you might be one of many people with a fixed mind-set. In Carol S. Dweck’s an essay, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”, she describes fixed and growth mind-sets. She describes how they affect school, and how they affect social relationships as well. The two central ideas of “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” are that fixed mind-sets can make a person shy away from a challenge and that growth mind-sets can be put into place by parents.

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

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 explains why,” I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture not because street smarts are nonintellectual, as we generally suppose, but because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly than school culture, which seams pale and unreal” (384). In other words, Graff believes that because street smarts involve in what is happening in the here and now, and not in theory, they seem more relevant and useful to students

Gerald Graff is a professor of English and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Graff, in his essay, emphasizes the importance for instructors to teach and increase enjoyable courses that students shall truly understand. Graff assures that all kids have hidden intellectualism trying to emerge from within, and as a teacher he feels partly accountable to help those kids develop their competencies in educational work. The essence of Graff’s argument is for students to know that intellectualism lurks within them all, and they need to implement their potential at school. Furthermore, he enriches the essay based totally on his own life experiences, along with his hidden intellectualism, while he attended school during the anti-intellectualism

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

Graff’s argument is relevant because it can be extremely beneficial to society and young teens if their intellect is tapped in a productive way. He describes intellect as being able to develop arguments about a specific topic and then brainstorming those topics with others. This thoughtful exchange of ideas is what brings people together and stimulates active thinking. Certain teens can benefit immensely for a variety of reasons. Firstly, some teens could complement the school texts with other interesting reads to significantly enhance their learning. Graff asserts that it does not matter what texts you read, but rather that a person reads and discusses that text actively with an intellectual mindset. If a student can find interest in

We have all been in the position where we have had the option between writing a dissertation on some academic subject, the Industrial Revolution for example, or the generally more favored option of watching football or reading about who Taylor Swift is dating now. Many would argue that while they would rather spend their time scrolling through social media and keeping up with the latest news in popular culture, academic work is far more important intellectually. Dr. Gerald Graff, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, would argue this is not the case at all and that it is in fact, the complete opposite. In his piece, “Hidden Intellectualism”, he rejects the common misconception that book smarts enhance intellectual processes moreso than street smarts through both critical analysis of the topic and the use of various writing techniques.

“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.

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

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.