Graff Hidden Intellectualism

734 Words3 Pages

Brendan Rieth
ENC1101
Pagan
10/30/16
Hidden Intellectualism
College, a new math assignment and paper assigned to you seemingly every night, but you’re a history major and have no need for learning the Pythagorean theory. This makes it easy to lose interest and fall behind in class. In his article, Graff cites works from many authors that correlate to his convincing idea of hidden intellectualism and looks deeply into the idea of finding and accepting someone’s “intellectualism”. While it is not a well-recognized idea, there is a lot of promise in the idea of hidden intellectualism, however, our society only focuses on the textbook and curriculum. Considering that some minds we consider genius today were not always seen as “intellectuals” maybe …show more content…

The only reading I cared to do or could do was from sports magazines.” (Graff 216). This is his first piece of evidence of his “hidden intellectualism”. Graff states this because he is trying to convey his idea that he would’ve been interested in school reading if it were based around sports or other interests he may have had. Graff also argues that “intellectualism is good, and that schools ought to encourage learners to read, think critically and write about their fields of personal interests like fashion, music, or cars” (217). What he is trying to prove is that students like himself that would be considered “street smart” could’ve had more success in …show more content…

Graff argues “we need to incorporate street smarts in traditional academic intellectualism” (217). It is evident that by incorporating both academic and social importance, a novel world of opportunity can be opened to learners. When students are given a chance to write about research topics that they are interested in, they would be able to learn more about the subjects linked to their social lives in addition to attaining the benefits of classroom knowledge.

Hidden intellectualism explores a refreshing and important topic of helping to change the school system rather than just rambling about what’s wrong with it. Every student has intellectual potential it just takes the right topic to bring it out of

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