Gerald Graff's Hidden Intellectualism

Graff says street smarts offer more life skills than the education provided in school. In other words, you can be smart without being highly educated because knowledge goes beyond academics. He grew up thinking he was anti-intellectual because his writing skills were not great about the topics he’s expected to write in school. Graff describes how sports helped him excel in academics and discover his hidden intellectualism. He believes ‘’Making students’ nonacademic interests of an object study is useful, the, for getting students’ attention and overcoming their boredom and alienation, but this tactic won’t in itself necessarily move them close to an rigorous treatment of those interests.’’ (Graff 400) By allowing students express their nonacademic interests in schoolwork then students will be more interested and motivated to do well in school.

Levine claims that these children are looking up to gang members and drug dealers as a way of life, knowing that their are no educational requirements to fulfill these positions (20). These poor students are simply seeing school as a must do for the time being, and not seeing the the value of the education they could be receiving if they had a better role model to look up to. Similarly, Graff asserts that students are not connecting with Shakespeare or the French Revolution, these students do not value the information because it does not pertain to them; However, sports, fashion or dating interests these students and have values to them (245). Schools and colleges are not connecting the dots. The values they set into the education system no longer interest students.

Intellect is a power that leads us to express our smartness. In the essay “Hidden Intelligence” by Gerald Graff he argues that the intellectual world is “much like the world of team sports, with rival interpretations … rival theories… and elaborate team competitions”. He attests from his own experience that intellect does not only exist in the scholarly form of thinking which is known as academic smart, knowledge can also take the form of street smart. He also demonstrates that there are some students are not academically good at school but they are very smart (by explaining a situation about a 14 years boy who does not show intellectual side because of fear of bullying but practices hidden intellectualism). It seems that the students who

If all the students are worried about is getting good grades to get those scholarships, then they are in school for the wrong reason. I believe that the point of going to school is to learn material not to take the easy route to satisfy yourself by getting good grades. I would rather fail something and learn from it, than pass with flying colors and not learn anything at all just because I wanted the money. Yes there is more of a reward for getting good grades rather than learning the material but what are you really getting out of it if you are not learning anything. Rags to riches, which means you might be the rag and at the bottom while you are in school, but if you learn something in school and work hard you while eventually be on the rich side of things.

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.

In both books the main characters meet someone who changes their lives for the better. In both Anthem and Fahrenheit 451 it is considered a sin to be too curious or too knowledgeable. In Anthem Equality 7-2521 is punished by his teachers for being too smart and for being curious about the things that he learns in his classes. He is even punished for being quicker at learning than the other students and for asking questions in class. Equality 7-2521 wishes he was not the way he was and wants to be more like some of his classmates who are not as smart and curious as he is.

Competition only makes children bound to be winners. It also discourages sportsman spirit. Instead of being a source of healthy growth, these competitive sports have started becoming the source of depression for children when they don’t fulfil the expectations of their parents. These sports should enhance the sportsman spirit in children and must be beneficial for their mental and physical health. Concentrating on winning or losing spoils the fun that games hold.

Most students learn by constructing knowledge based on an engaged learning process rather than by absorbing knowledge from passive sources. The diversity of student backgrounds, abilities and learning styles makes each person unique in the way he or she reacts to information. The intersection of diverse student backgrounds and active learning needs a comfortable, positive environment in which to take root. Dr. King continues by explaining, “Education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.” From back then to today’s society, kids are failing because they lack those morals that they need to succeed.

Graff feels that teachers should base some of their lesson on what students have a connection so they can be more focus because they are interested and not bored. He talks about how if schools and colleges will connect with the kids that are "Street Smart" they won't do a poor job in school they will do fairly better if they were more intact with the topic itself. Graff explains to us his growing up in the "hood" you were more respected for being street smart then you was for being book smart. It took a discussion about toughness for him to notice how intellectual he was, but he as just different from others , it wasn't about everything it was just about things he had a strong interest in. He noticed from how he us to have serious verbal altercations about sports and how he acknowledge the difference in players through

As a personal example, I have a student who is not really physically gifted but still enjoys trainings and drills during varsity practice. But when their age group entered a higher level of competition, he approached me to tell me that he was quitting because he felt that he could not perform at the level that were going into. He told me that he was having a hard time catching up with the physical demands of this new level of play and that he was quitting because its too hard. As a coach, I asked him: when your studies get harder, do you stop going to school? Quitting is not the solution when faced with a problem; especially one that you have direct influence