Summary: Hidden Intellectualism

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

“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.

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.

Education is one of our Nation’s most pressing concerns as our worldwide ranking has diminished over recent years. In his short story, Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff states that “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts we consider inherently weighty and academic” (244). Gerald argues that too many intelligent people are missing the opportunity to thrive. Gerald’s belief is that these “Street Smart” (244). people that do not excel in our academics may be failing due to our skewed vision of what subjects are academic. His compassion and knowledge reinforce the idea well, but he drifts off in his childhood experiences distracting readers from the point of missed opportunity and talent. I feel the emphasis on sports is too strong, and only appeals to a smaller population of the readers. Over all I think we can all agree our education system can use improvements.

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

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.

In reading Gerald Graff’s short essay Hidden Intellectualism, I agree and disagree with some of what Graff argues. He emphasizes that by having students write about something they are passionate about, it will inspire them to write more academically and be willing to focus on their studies and academics. He informs the reader that “It was in these discussions with friends about toughness and sports, I think, and in my reading of sports books and magazines, that I began to learn the rudiments of the intellectual life” (Graff, pg. ) In this quote, he argues that by having discussions about his passion with sports helped him as he grew up to be able to sustain a conversation with his peers and enforce his ideas across. I believe discussing passionate subjects an individual has is a great way to expand them academically.

The general argument made by Gerald Graff in his essay “Hidden Intellectualism” is that, All people are intellectual but that intellectual side is hidden, People’s intellectual side usually emerge when they focus on things they are inquisitive in, maybe in academics or in sports as long as the person doing it is really passionate about it. More specifically, Graff argues that students in school should choose the subject that they believe will assist them and applicable to their skills because once they are force to study subject that is not relevant to what they want or they are not really interested in, they will just attend their class for a whole year without learning anything about it. That is because they are not willing to do it, their intellectual capacity will remain hidden for a long period of time. In addition the author writes, that “It was in these discussion with friends about toughness and sports, I think, and in my reading of sports books and magazine that I began to learn the rudiments of intellectual life”. This passage means that intellectual potential is not only gain by academic people, anyone can aquire it as long

Should students be taught to read and become interested in sports rather than proper intellectual subjects? This is the question that Gerald Graff seeks to answer in his essay, “Hidden Intellectualism”. Graff begins his essay by asking the reader if he or she knows anybody who they consider to be street smart but struggles in school. His assertion relating to these particular individuals is that maybe it is the school system’s fault for not properly learning to, “. . . tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (260). According to Graff, the reason why schools overlook these potential academic abilities of students is because street subjects are not considered to be “intellectual”.

In elementary school, I loved to read. Writing was not a big deal either due to the fact that we did not have to write four page essays. It was in first grade when I started to like reading. Reading has just been freshly introduced, considering we had only completed one year of school. My teacher always read to us and I wanted to read those books as well. Throughout elementary school I started to read Junie B. Jones books, which were my favorite. All of the books were about a first grade girl and her different adventures. I had always enjoyed reading those books. Each book had a different topic which I would always relate to in some way. Although I liked to read, I did struggle with reading comprehension which made me dislike writing as well. I hated having to read and then go and write about it. To this day, I still do not like reading comprehension, but my feelings toward reading and writing have changed.

“Hidden Intellectualism” discussed the many ways in which a student can be smart; and because of their great influence on education, a duty to serve the people, and a disconnect from the classrooms, this essay is extremely important to legislators. First, legislators have an enormous impact on education. Legislators are the ones who decide what is taught in school and what standardized tests are given - tests, as the essay explains, that may falsely label a student as unintelligent. Despite the legislators’ effects on education, they are often not aware of what goes on inside a classroom. Therefore, while the legislators enforce programs to make students smarter, they themselves are ignorant of what effects those programs may have. Next, the

Reading was the new outlet for my imagination and the stories I read fascinated me. They weren’t too unlike the scripts of computer games or the own stories I came up with on my own, but books actually had the action and emotional aspects written out. And again, while my peers were reading things about growing up, things that had morals and would teach valuable lessons (I remember one book about a shoplifter who had to do community service at an animal shelter), I read real fiction: Jurassic Park, Dragonriders of Pern, Lord of the Rings… Stuff of fantasy and science-fiction that let my mind stray from reality. Stuff that kept my imagination alive while I was being forced to learn multiplication and the names of countries. Of course, my teachers encouraged me to keep reading, as long as I wasn’t doing the reading in the middle of their lectures. But it wasn’t because of their influence, however, that kept me interested in books. It was because I loved it. It put pictures into my head and made me think. So I kept reading. But even then I knew reading wasn’t enough… Yes, the stories were fascinating, but they weren’t what I wanted. Back then I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but as middle school came to a close, I found it.

Many would consider comic books and graphic novels to be unconventional. However, many studies have proven that comic books and graphic novels can motivate students to learn almost anything.

In Botzakis’s journal he interviews other adults that escape reality through the usage of comic books. Aaron, 37 years old, married, and a father of one loves to read comic books. This grown man admitted “when I was reading a whole lot, it was my escape, my protection place.” (Botzakis 53). Aaron did enjoy reading and examining the cultures within the comic books. Comic books were his way of escaping reality, it didn’t feel like work, it was enjoyable and relaxing. Reading the comic books weren’t a task for him, it was a hobby. Further on in the interviews, these grown men described similar traits as to why they enjoyed reading comic books. Kyle, 29 years old, expressed that he felt pure joy and happiness. Peter’s interview was titled “Reading

Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales