Hidden Intellectualism Analysis

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

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. So no matter what you’re most interested in or have the most knowledge about, if you’re an expert on it, you’re an intellect. My nonacademic pursuit is playing the violin, which is very challenging. You have to learn many things in order to play it correctly and not sound terrible. It takes time and patience to learn

The author, Natalie Wexler is a one of the founders of the board of trustees for the Writing Revolution. In her article, Why Americans Can 't Write, with the advent of email, writing ability has become more important than ever, and writing deficiencies have become increasingly apparent. The writing skills have been lacking in America, and the reason is because schools have only 24% of the students in eighth and 12th grades were proficient in writing and just 3% were advanced. The exercise doesn 't provide kids with the tools they need to write analytically. The standards in middle and in high schools teachers expect students to know things. For example, the rules of capitalization, punctuation and sentence construction. But this doesn 't

Some may say that educational systems are superior, however, some can argue that the educational system needs a change. Francine Prose’s purpose in “I Know Why The Caged Bird Cannot Read” stood out clearly, to inform parents on how the current system of education is ineffective to young learners. Her use of words, ethos, logos and pathos appeals to educators and students to inspire change in their education standards.

“America Needs Its Nerds” an article created by Leonid Fridman, puts forth a pertinent issue in today’s society: intellectually adept students are ostracized. Fridman argues that smart, curious students need to stop feeling ashamed for being smart and curious. Society needs to change because their current philosophy towards intellect is one of pessimism. Fridman develops these arguments in his essay by utilizing the rhetorical strategy of parallelism, drawing conclusions, and through his use of diction.

While it may be true that even if a student is reading Sports Illustrated, they will still become more literate and reflective than if they hadn’t read at all, it is also true that the student is then less likely to read the same desired material outside of class because they are already being forced to read it inside of class. Moreover, if class time is spent reading something such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, the student will be more inclined to read Sports Illustrated outside of class; thus, increasing their reading time altogether. On the report of Engaging Schools: Fostering High School Students’ Motivation to Learn, “studies have shown that students who read outside of school become better readers (Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding, 1988; Fielding, 1994; Guthrie, Schafer, Wang, and Afflerbach, 1995)” (64). Therefore, by engaging in materials which the students may not be interested in during the school day, they will be more likely to read other subject matters outside of school and consequently increase their reading

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”. Fridman’s essay applies to different groups of people, as the problem exists on different layers of the society: from schools to universities and the adult life. The author’s purpose is to demonstrate

I find that the wording and presentation of an article or essay influences my opinion of the writer, and it affects how I receive the idea they are trying to present to me. Craig Vetter uses a blunt approach to convey his idea that writing is nearly impossible to teach, and describes writing as “A blood sport, a walk in the garden of agony every time out.” He presents writing as an arduous task that no one can ever perfect, and he presents this view in a harsh light that makes you realize that what he says is a cold hard truth, that you suck at writing, and that there is next to nothing that you can do to change 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,

In this essay, "Why Literature Matters", author Dana Gioia sets up an argument about literature. Which she uses various ways to persuade her audience be in favor of her proposal; by showing statistic evidence, facts, and historical evidence, as well as some ironies, diction, and the appeals to reader's emotion.

“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.

In the short story "Hidden Intellectualism" by Gerald Graff, the main idea is to bring acknowledgment to the idea that educators of schools and colleges should incorporate students interest into their teaching. In other words, Graff believes schools and colleges are at fault for not taking the opportunity to use "street smarts" for good academic work (Graff,2010). If Gerald Graff is right about educators needing to incorporate "street smarts" into scholarly works, as I agree, then educators should reevaluate their teaching methods. Students are becoming negligent of gaining knowledge of social interest because it is not encouraged by instructors. Therefore, the only topics students can converse with are related to school work (Graff,2010). Graff consistently targets teachers in this story, mainly because he knows that educators are capable of changing the never-ending pattern in the school system but educators are not attempting to use the many opportunities available (Graff, 2010). The author, target teachers not in a negative aspect but in a positive aspect to invite change. Graff is approaching the situation in an

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

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.

In Gerald Graff's Hidden Intellectualism, he begins with a long lasting discussion about the the difference between “book smarts” and “streets smart”. Street smarts are frequently called “hoods” as they are the tough types and book smarts as the name suggests are typically referred to as “nerds or geeks”. Graff gives us insight on many cases of how these books smarts can take various forms, and hide in what people call street smarts, hence the “hidden Intellectualism”. He does this by sharing his story with us, growing up in his community where being “street smart” was more acceptable than being “book smart”. He would be bullied if he tried to pronounce words better than the others or spoke too intelligently around them, and as a result he