Gerald Graff, a highly regarded English teacher at the University of Illinois at Chicago, writes this essay “Hidden Intellectualism” as1 an adaption from his book published in 2003 Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind. Throughout the passage he argues that there are forms of intellectualism that surpass our societies views of being smart, and that our education system is not providing everyone with equal rights to use their skills. Gerald Graff’s is correct in his point of view because there are actually some young people who do not do well academically but excel in extra-curricular activities such as sports. These individuals may be said to possess a form of intellectualism that is concealed. This essay will critically
With these two comparisons Fridman highlights just how different the United States is to other countries in terms of intellectual praise. He demonstrates just how much the U.S must change in order stop limiting the potential of young intellectuals and instead encourage them to use these abilities to further progress in
William Henry wrote, “In Defense of Elitism”, he argues that colleges are letting too many students in, and that some of the students that are in college do not really deserve to be there. He thinks that the reason for the dumbed down education system is because of letting in too many students that do not need to attend college. In “America Skips School”, by Benjamin Barber, he believes that the teachers of todays generation blame kids for the fall of
Mid- afternoon on a blis day an article “ Anti-Intellectualism and the “ Dumb Down” of America” by Ray William appeared to be the highlight of my day. Not only does Ray William present great arguments on why the uprising generation - in context “Dumb” but the new generation has be constructed to do one thing only, Jump over hoops. Which has eliminated all acts and process of showing true intellectualness. Making Ray William completely making well-founded thoughts in the article “Anti-Intellectualism and the “ Dumb Down” of America” Why is our society taught to jump through hoops, instead of thinking outside the box?
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.
“Intelligence is closely associated with formal education- the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long- and most people seem to move comfortably from that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Rose). What Rose is trying to infer is that just because you are labeled blue collar: meaning you have to earn your income from manual labor, and have lack of educational knowledge, does not mean you cannot earn the knowledge in your work career. There are many opportunities to learn from your job even if you are less experienced. “...One who is so intelligent about so many things in life seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work.
“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.
Mike Rose disagrees with the assumption that “Intelligence is closely associated with formal education” (Mike, 247). Formal education does not always measure the level of intelligence of a person. Education as something people can gain not only in school, but every day of their lives. We should be learning from our experiences, and apply this knowledge to our everyday lives. Wisdom should not be looked at as just
The Rhetorical Analysis of the “America Needs its Nerds” The mental capacity is treated as a disadvantage in the America, despite the fact it already helped the country many times. This long-term problem became the main topic of the Leonid Fridman’s essay “America Needs its Nerds”. The work first appeared on January 11, 1990 in the New York Times as a part of the series “Voices of the New Generation”. The author spoke about the negative attitude the American society has to smart people and demonstrates it with the usage of words like “nerd” or “geek”.
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.
Leonid Fridman characterizes the typical American mindset this makes the text easily understood and relatable for the readers. Because the problem at hand is mainly geared toward Americans he brings up the fact that, “In most industrialized nations, not least of all of our economic rivals in East Asia, a kid who studies hard is lauded and held up as an example to other students.” He is showing the reader that in other countries they praise the children for their academic efforts unlike the US that use derogatory language like “nerd” and “geek” when referring to the academically achieving people. He also compares the jobs of individuals from other countries to show the divide between the American mindset and the mindset around the world. Fridman states “In many parts of the world university professorships are the most prestigious and materially rewarding positions but not in America…” Friedman says this so the readers are aware of the rift between America and other countries of the world especially their view of intellectual
In the essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance” it begins with a fairly detailed description of Mike Rose’s mother at her work as a waitress in Los Angeles during the 1950’s, when he was a child. Mike Rose is a professor at the UCLA graduate school of education and information studies. This article originally appeared in 2009 in the American Scholar, a magazine published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Rose’s intended audience for this article is white collar workers, who usually hold a negative perspective towards their colleagues who aren’t as well educated as them. Mike Rose uses his mother and uncle as examples of his argument that those without formal education have important kinds of intelligence as well just in different ways.
Mark Bauerlein, author of ‘The Dumbest Generation’, argues that today’s youth has had a decline in academics due to new technology in today’s economy. In retrospect, we’re growing up in a different time than the generation before us; the world and it’s products are different as to be expected, and with them we must learn new materials than they did. Today’s generation isn’t ‘dumb’, instead we’re adjusting to the times and retaining different knowledge than the generations before us. Many older generations always thinks that the generation after theirs is ‘dumber’, and think themselves to be the superior one.
Ray Williams talks about how America as a whole is foregoing conventional knowledge and replacing it with what could be considered more self-absorbed information in his article “Anti-Intellectualism and the Dumbing Down of America”. He goes on to include a quote from Susan Jacoby, paraphrasing senator Moynihan, about “the triumph of video culture over print culture”. This is of great interest due to the fact that if someone wants to learn a skill or get information about how to accomplish something, one of the first places that individual goes is YouTube. Although senator Moynihan made a great point with his quote, the quote that resonated with me was made by Catherine Liu when she said “We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get
In the reading, “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids,” Grant Penrod recommends that there should be a different way to socialize amongst other individuals. This entire description explains the personal burdens that the intelligent scholars undergo. The ideas are as follows: author 's guilt celebrates, ideas held as standard when communicating, and on the bandwagon to get smart people worn down by the individuals that are against smart people. The author is afraid that people would not take the time out of their day to read or study for their classes. Claiming that bad influence towards education makes it resistant.
