Hidden Intellectualism Gerald Graff Analysis

This has been cemented into the brains of every school boy and girl from early on and yet still, it has become prevalent to relinquish ones desire to be educated so one may conform to the habits of the culture around them. The corruption of mankind is the concept that being intelligent makes you arrogant and off-putting when in reality, becoming literate and informed can open more doors and present more opportunities than every before! In Gerald Graff’s, “Disliking Books”, Graff describes his academic and intellectual upcoming through his experience from literature in school. Despite his environment and the culture around him, Graff found clarity in class discussion and fascination in literature. Slowly, with the guidance of his father and his personal drive to rise above the conformity around him, Graff was able to overcome the corruption around him and find new meaning in being knowledgeable; proving to the world and himself that with the right mindset and determination, you can rise Per aspera ad astra (from the mud to the

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

Hidden Intellectualism In Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff begins with the age-old argument of difference between “book smart” and “street smarts.” He explains that in many cases, these book smarts, are “hidden” intellectualism. He states that current society is still focused on textbook, and classroom intellectualism. Moreover, the form of intellectualism is concealed under the mask of usual discussion about fashion, sport, co-star and many more. And it is also true that some young generation are not good on classroom but extra ordinary on other aspects of extra-curricular activities. Graff argues that school should take these street smarts and make them work on academic work.

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.

The reason why students should read more challenging novels are because they learn new things, and they could also learn how to act in a certain situation based on the type of challenging story they read. Many people also feel that this book is irrelevant to student’s lives. However, kids should learn what life would be like for kids at their age in a different time period. Like what was stated before, in a history class, when we learn about the history, we learn about the straight facts, not as much of the personal lives of people living in that time. Since the novel is showing the personal recollections of one boy in the time period, students can identify the similarities between the two lessons.

In Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism” he emphasizes his own personal opinion and thoughts on street smarts vs. intellect or book smarts. He then goes into saying how students do not need to read intellectually challenging writing to become intellectuals. While talking through this he figures out what category he would put himself in. He really notices this about himself when he stopped and listened to himself and realize how much he argued and how he reasoned with particular subjects. Graff then goes in telling a story about Michael Warner who also, like Graff, found out where he would put himself, and it would for the same reason Graff did, by arguing.

In “Hidden Intellectualism”, by Gerald Graff he makes a stunning point that compares street smarts to book smarts. He brought up the idea that if teachers incorporated things that students are passionate about, and topics that they can relate to they would get more passion and effort in their work, rather than assigning topics that the students have nothing in common with. I agree with this author's opinion one hundred percent. Just recently my high school teacher let us write an essay on our favorite band so she could evaluate our writing, and I felt like writing the essay was a piece of cake. In another class we had to write about the Bill of Rights and court cases from hundreds of years ago.

In Gerald Graff’s essay, “Hidden Intellectualism”, he believes that students who do well in sports are more intellectual than those students who focus on academics. The reason being that students tend to do well in concepts that interest them more than those subjects that don’t. He says, “For students who get excited about their passion for cars will often write poorly and unreflectively on that topic of Shakespeare or Plato.” Something that I have always loved to do when I was a little kid was to watch my grandma bake. It’s how I got so into baking. For many people, baking is a tedious task that requires too much work which takes up a lot of time.

In the readings Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff and Blue-Collar Brilliance, Mike Rose both authors talk about intelligence, and what we understand intelligence to mean. Graff’s uses the words “book and street smarts” to explain his meaning of intellect. Rose uses his mothers and uncles job life experience to explain his. Both authors make it clear that to be intelligent doesn’t always relate to your knowledge of textbooks and readings, but to how you take what you learned in those reading and put them into everyday life experiences. Graff street smart intelligence is someone who is intelligent about life.

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.