Controversial Debates In Richard Herrnstein's The Bell Curve

“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.

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,

Special education as we currently know it has been shaped in large part by court cases and subsequent legislation. After the Brown vs. Board of Education case was decided there was a demand for change. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, a group of researchers began to study the current special education system. These efficacy studies were looking specifically for achievement of the intellectually disabled in general education versus separate (or special) education classes. This 1965 research showed that students with intellectual disabilities who were educated in a general education setting, “achieved more academically than those in special classes,” (Goldstein, Moss & Jordan).

As a student at Catalina Foothills High School, I believe I have lived up to the tenet of service and display ideals that the National Honors Society seek for in a student and citizen in society. If I am granted membership into the society, I believe I can contribute my qualities to the community as a member of Catalina Foothills National Honor Society and demonstrate the highest standards of behavior to represent our school honorably.

Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism” goes through many reasons why not being book smart could be a good thing. The sports world is a way of people connecting through the competitive sports that always lead to some sort of debate (268). Graff grew up always liking sports and being “street smart” living in Chicago. He always read sports magazines growing up and realized that reading magazines was a good tactic for schools to teach street smart kids how to write good essays based on their hobbies of reading magazines (265). “What doesn’t occur to us, is that schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work”(264).

My understanding of the “American Dream” is a concept of migrating to the United States, starting from scratch, and becoming rich and successful by working hard. But after reading Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell change my perspective of the “American Dream” by providing the idea of luck and opportunity playing a major factor in one 's success. Almost all the success story of the immigrant in the book was by opportunity because of birth, chance by cultural background and circumstances. Gladwell changed my view of how the “American Dream” is accomplished, not solely by hard work, but luck and opportunity are what factor into someone accomplishing the “American Dream”.

The argument developed in Chapter 3 and 4 of the Outliers contends that IQ beyond a point is not a determining factor in success. Gladwell implies that a higher IQ to a certain extent is optimal but once a defined threshold has been achieved, having greater intelligence provides limited or possibly no additional benefits in the attainment of success. An analogy in the book that is used to convince us that opportunity matters more that talent is an example from the studies of Annette Lareau comprised of a group of third graders residing in lower and middle/upper income households. Her studies showed that the middle/upper class students were provided opportunities to cultivate their talent/abilities in a meaningful way along with support and

In "Blue-Collar Brilliance" Mike Rose Shares his perspective on how education is not Intelligence. He lets us know how growing up he was around a bunch of Blue-Collar workers himself, and how intelligence is not based on the education you have but what you can Develop on your own from just being open minded. He explains to use how blue-collar jobs take a toll on both body and mind. He believes that you don't need to be taught things to develop intelligence that your intelligence comes from within. He shared the different stories of blue-collar workers life that he experience such as his mother and his uncle to help us see that even if you don't have a high education and a college degree you can still become a successful. He wants use to see that blue-collar jobs take more intelligence then what we think: it's more than just an elementary job.

In "Outliers: The story of success", Malcom Gladwell explained and gave examples of ways to be successful. There are many ways that Gladwell mentioned, such as luck, practice, background, family, and culture. There are many more of course, but I will save time. There are three of which I think are the most important, these being Intelligence, Social Skills, and Location; and these are explanations as to why I think these are the most important.

The tests are ineffective because they don’t measure all of what the students know, and what is important. The text stated, “Standardized Tests are IQ tests from one-hundred years ago. They are outdated.” Some reasons to why Standardized Tests are ineffective are that they don’t measure student’s creativity, and they make students feel they aren’t smart. In the 1950’s they only tested every two years.Standardized Tests are ineffective because they don’t measure what is important.

Would it be worse to have an IQ of 204 or 68? Would it be worse to know everything but not be able to talk with anyone without frustration or know nothing but not be able to talk of anything more complex than third grade level? In the short science fiction story, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon with an IQ of 68 and has a difficult time learning anything as simple as reading or writing is given the option to triple his intelligence with a suspicious surgery. Charlie, ignorant of the suspicion or risk that comes with this surgery is desperate to become intelligent as it is his only wish and nothing is more important to him. His teacher, Miss Kinnian recommend him for the surgery out of anyone in the class due to his egre and positive outlook on intelligence. However, after the surgery, Charlie finds intelligence was a nice treat but was far from an importance in life and only took him away from what truly mattered. One could believe Charlie was wrong to undergo the surgery because of the side effects that came with the surgery such as physical and emotional instability, and amnesia, the depresion it came with, and how he lost all of his friends and loved ones with his extreme intelligence.

Despite the fact that some people believe that Rorschach tests are meaningless and unreliable; it actually is useful and accurately determines the person 'sr demeanor. The Rorschach test has been with us for from 1921. Through the 1940’s and 1950’s the test was synonymous with clinical psychologists.The rorschach test is a reliable and useful test. Although some people believe that rorschach tests are meaningless they 're not. They are used for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a type of disorder that affects the way a person behaves and sees the world. People believe that Rorschach tests are unreliable, meaningless; but some people believe they tell the person if the person 's have a low IQ or not.

Standardized intelligence testing has been one of psychology’s ultimate achievements. “Intelligence tests are psychological tests that are designed to measure a variety of mental functions, such as reasoning, comprehension, and judgment.” ("Intelligence tests," n.d.) They can help diagnose knowledgeable disabilities or measures a person’s knowledgeable potential. Alfred Binet was the first French Psychologist who created the first intelligence test in the 1900s. Then after, in the late 1800s, Henry Herbert Goddard, Psychologist, translated the Binet test from French to English. Originally, the tests were to measure basic knowledge of children in the United States to assist with support of mental health diagnosis.

Growing up, I was surrounded by competition and was always pushed to have good grades and to study often. My parents always told me that going to a University would make them proud. Every time they mentioned colleges, they would always talk about “UC’s”. My parents believed that obtaining a degree from a prestigious or high ranking University would guarantee me a high paying job in a wonderful career field. Aside from getting a fantastic job, I always thought that that student’s with the highest grades or highest IQ’s were the most successful ones. In the book Outliers, Gladwell slowly began to crumble my faulty beliefs and starts to show me that having the highest IQ doesn’t necessarily mean one will be successful and that you can achieve success no matter what college one goes to.

Standardized testing has become one of the most popular types of testing in U.S. public schools to date. Students take numerous standardized tests throughout their childhood schooling. (Studies show that a typical student takes an average of 112 mandated standardized tests between Pre-K and 12th grade.) While standardized testing is one of the main procedures that Universities use to judge incoming students, it is not proven to be the most effective way to convey a student’s actual intelligence level. The U.S. should not focus so heavily on standardized testing because it is not a complete accurate measurement of a student’s intelligence.