Abraham Schmitt's Brilliant Idiot

Henry Wadworth Longfellow, and American poet from the 1800s, said, “Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.” This concept I explained by, Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. He devotes chapters three and four to discussing “The Trouble with Geniuses.” The theory he outlines in this section of the book discusses how much of a factor high intelligent quotient is in determining success, versus how important upbringing is. He examines geniuses, who are commonly considered “the true outliers,” and their successes. Gladwell wrote these chapters with the purpose of persuading his target audience, and wrote with them in mind. He contextualizes his arguments for the readers

McDowell begins the book with an anecdote of his life; a familiar story of the sceptical university Agnostic, ready to fire back a retort at the slightest mention of God, Christianity, and anything (or anyone) within. He recounted the all too common feeling of a meaningless life, the seemingly innate itch of human existence, and how it brought him to various places in his life—until he stumbled upon a particular group of people and was changed forever.

Intellectualism is the factor of being intellect or intelligent. The idea of what it means to be educated can be interpreted many different ways by different people. Some think it’s having a 4.0 and going to Harvard, while others believe in the idea of having common sense. In the essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff reflects how lack of education is viewed negatively in society. On top of that, a question also lies what it means to educated. In order to be truly educated, a person should be well rounded not in just tests of intelligence, but the tests of life as well.

David Foster Wallance’s short story, “Good People”, portrays the main characters issues while pondering the difficulties of spirituality during an emotional event. The main character, Lane Dean Jr. and his girlfriend are faced with a life changing decision: whether to abort the child Sheri is pregnant with or raise the child. Throughout this decision, Dean is faced with many psychological and spiritual dilemmas. While the couple originally decides to have an abortion, Sheri becomes unsure of the decision. While the pace of the story is slow, it emphasizes the emotional distress that both Dean and Sheri are going through. Not only does the story line express their internal conflicts about abortion, but also where they stand within their own faith. Dean struggles to understand his faith, while Sheri knows that within her faith she should not abort the child but love it instead (162). Throughout David Foster Wallace’s short story, “Good People” readers are able characterize Dean and his spirituality through the pace and narration of the novel.

The reading "Hidden Intellectualism" by Gerald Graff reflects views on being "street smart" and "book smart." He explains that society tends to associate people who are intelligent on solely being "book smart" and performing well in academics, rather than being street smart. He goes on to further explain that students perhaps can be intelligent on topics that interest them. Graff opens up the reading by giving his own personal experience on feeling torn between trying to prove that he was smart yet fearing that he was overdoing it. He was trying to prove that he learned just as much about the real world by reading his sports books and magazines as he would have if he had read the classic works of literature like most students in school. Essentially,

What if someone unexpected changed your way of thinking, permanently? What if God chose to send someone into your life to abolish you superficial thoughts? In both the stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, by Flannery O’Connor, and “Cathedral”, by Raymond Carver, the authors create main characters who lack faith and think superficially about life. However, in both stories, the authors send unexpected characters to act like mediums, for their job is to be the connection of the main character’s initial position in faith and their final position, revealed at the end of both stories. Even though the stories have a different plot and involve diverse kinds of characters, the final message and moral is the same. In the stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Cathedral”, Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver use unexpected figures and characters as a way to change the main character’s personality and thoughts.

“Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff starts off with an older argument between being book smart and street smart. Throughout the reading, Graff uses his own life experiences to critique the education system today. Points made focus on the idea of overlooking the intellectual potential of those who come across as being, “street smart”. Different authors cited in the reading to show how to accept another’s different intellectual. However, we realize that people who come across as being intellectual weren’t always labeled as that.

Dyslexia is a condition that affects learning literacy so what they think they are reading may not be what is actually there so they get stuck with understand letters they may

Dyslexia was traditionally defined as an unexpected difficulty learning to read despite intelligence, motivation and education (Shaywitz, 1996). An article by a group of researchers, published by The American Academy of Pediatrics (2011) describes it as a receptive

However just because dyslexia forces me to exude more effort than others, that means I will simply have to strive to be better than everyone else. If I am already running an extra mile, what is one more step? This mindset has been my method of motivating myself through triumphing over dyslexia. My motto ever since the day I learned of my disability has been, “I am willing to chase with patience!” This means that I will be patient while I vigorously chase my dreams. I am motivated. I am inspired. I am ambitious. I am tireless. I am Quentin

Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” contemplates the age-old idea that street smarts are anti-intellectual. However, as Graff points out, “schools and colleges are at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into academic smarts.” (244). What Graff means by this is that being street smart does not mean a person lacks intelligence. Rather, educational institutions need to find a way to effectively ‘tap into’ this different format of intellectualism to produce academic intelligence. Graff goes on to point out that society associates ‘weighty’ subjects, like Shakespeare and Plato, with intellectualism, but not less serious subjects, such as sports and video games. In consideration of this overlook

The purpose of education is to improve our thinking which can lead to success. Defining modern schooling and its effectiveness proves to be quite controversial. Based on how the unsatisfactory system is run and the claim that it produces immaturity causes people to start questioning if mandatory schooling is really necessary to achieve an education.

In Gerald Graff 's essay “Hidden Intellectualism” starts of by talking about the stereotype of being so called “street smart” and and being “book smart” and how in school when you see someone who is street smart but doesn’t do go in school get a bad wrap. People look at them as a waste because they can’t apply there intelligences that they have and use it towards school, so people view them as not the right kind of smart because they are not a A student in school. Graff then goes on to say that maybe it is not the students that are the problem with how they do in school but maybe it is the school that have missed or overlooked the intellectual potential that kids with street smarts have. Graff also says that we only view the educated minds through schooling as the right way and schools and colleges look at kids who do not like school and don’t do well as anti-intellectual people. As Graff continues his essay he says that he was on the side of being more anti-intellectual and he found that through sports he was more interested in sports then he was in school. He would use this love for sports to build up his hidden intellectualism with sports. I think that Graff is right about what he is talking about with how we as a society think if you want to be smart them you need to do well in school and get all A’s or then you are not that smart. In all reality there are many times that kids go through school and don’t do well not because they are not smart,but because people don’t

By not including anything that might be offensive to a reader of a different religion, Hughes expanded his audience to a wide array of readers. Incorporating this religious experience to your own life experiences can be beneficial when relating to similar situations that you might have faced, or will face in the future. This story of a young man realizing that things may not always be as easy as others make it seem, and that at some points in life you must rethink everything you thought you once knew, is an important life lesson to all readers. Forming your own opinion on controversial subjects, such as religion, is something that one must do several times throughout their lives. This reason itself is what makes this story by Hughes interesting and unique in the way that it can relate to so many subjects not regarding

Many children at school are capable of hiding their learning difficulties by steering clear from reading aloud or writing very little (Reid 2013, p13).Not to mention, the Report of the Task force on Dyslexia (2001) states learning difficulties from dyslexia occurs across the lifespan of a person and can vary from mild to severe at different ages (Report of the Task Force on Dyslexia, 2001). It is extremely vital for teachers to be fully aware and trained in the area of dyslexia. Teacher’s use of differentiation in their subjects in the classroom is a strong fundamental in order to meet the needs of a student with a learning difficulty like