In Gerald Graff’s article “Hidden Intellectualism,” from the 2003 copy of They Say I Say, the author explores the idea of what true intellectualism is by recalling pieces of his childhood. The way schools and society view intellectualism comes in to questions as being one sided or false altogether . There remain several sides to the argument regarding education and include anything regarding what should be taught, how it should be taught, and what marks the mastering of a subject. With true education as well as the proper way to teach being a heavily debated topic of controversy, the question of the right way to teach is heavily sought after. Public education has always been a topic of intense controversy in the United States since its early founding years. As of today, the country is still split on this education issue even in reference to political …show more content…
While Graft covers little in reference to this change, the youtube video “6 problems with our school systems,” greatly specifics what problems are causing this change. From the video, two main problems in our school systems have lead to this narrowing of what kids want to be. The first problem, as addressed, “This industrial age style of teaching is still currently taught in our schools.” (Next School, 2016, 30 sec) Being molded to sit and follow directions, there is little room to be oneself or to experience what the student wants to be if that job is outside of school curriculum. Another problem addressed in the video includes, “Most learning is not effective as it relies on memorization and rote learning.” (Next School, 2016, 2:22) This method of memorization drains all creativeness from a student, forcing them along a narrow line. Street smart students, bored or not good at just memorizing facts, are viewed as dumb in schools as the schools only focus on core
Hidden Intelligence vs. Hidden Satire When writing their essays, Gerald Graff and Antonia Peacocke both look at the intellectual side of topics not commonly thought to require a high level of intelligence. Graff refers to multiple nontraditional subjects like sports, cars, and fashion, while Peacocke focuses only on the TV show, Family Guy. Both of the articles express the idea that things at first glance may not seem to have an intellectual aspect, but as they are further analyzed, the content can have a deeper meaning than ever imagined. In Gerald Graff’s essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” he discusses the basic “street smart” verses the “book smart” individual in the academic world.
Having never taken a college writing course before, I did not know what to expect and therefore assumed that I would choose my own topic to write about; of course, this isn’t the case. However, if I had the choice, I would not have chosen to write a response to Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism”. After going through his essay with a fine-tooth comb, I have found a few flaws in his reasoning. Gerald Graff believes that schools and colleges are not taking advantage of “street smarts” by not using them in an intellectual setting when in fact, schools are providing students with a large assortment of other knowledge and skills. In Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism”, he argues for the importance of changing school curriculums in order to better reflect the interests
In Hidden Intellectualism article, Gerald Graff begins the article with talking about “street smart” and that not everyone have to be good in school to be considered smart. He also said that schools and colleges overlook the intellectual of street smart. For Gerald Graff he noticed that he had intellectual when he noticed that he was using reason and arguments to talk about sports with his friends. Then Graff moves to saying that Intellectuals is looked down at and that he was scared to show the intellectual side of him because he was worried of people bullying him but when he was talking about sport he was sharing his intellectual without anyone knowing. Graf mentioned that sports is more intellectual than school.
The topic of schools not being able to hack into the minds of young students and bring out their hidden intellect is a problem in modern culture. Gerald Graff writes about this subject in his article “Hidden Intellectualism.” He is professor at the University of Illinois and the former president of the Modern Language Association. He talks about how schools fail to gain students attention by making them write essays on the classics, like Shakespeare, instead of starting out with topics the students would enjoy, such as sports, video games, and fashion. He makes valid arguments about how the schools fail to tap into that hidden intellectualism of the students, and he uses pathos, logos, and ethos; and so therefore his essay is mostly successful.
One being their articles have different aims. In Graff’s piece, he keeps pointing out “that students harbor intellectual resources – “Street smarts” – that go untapped by formal schooling”. (22) This is Graff’s main opinion on what he thinks education is lacking. Throughout his whole article, he wants you to know that educators can “’overlook the intellectualism latent in supposedly philistine pursuits.”
Throughout the first month of class, I’ve learn many concepts from the assignments given which include ethos,logos, pathos,claims,rhetorical reading and writing and others. One concept I have grasp is rhetorical reading, which means persuading the audience to believe a certain value or idea ultimately is considered an argument. For example,as I analyzed the content in the article Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff, I had developed the conclusion that the author attempted to convince his audience to agree with his claim, which in fact his belief was that street smarts should absolutely be valuable academically in schools. After analyzing the article thoroughly, I had the task of writing a rhetorical essay explaining if I agree with the point
Themes that are apparent in the book Fahrenheit 451 are violence, cultures of the past, and ignorance of knowledge. Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel set in the future written by Ray Bradbury. It imagines a future where books are banned and everyone has a tv in their house as their main entertainment. It specifically focuses on one character named Guy Montag and his role as a fireman in that society because firemen start fires to burn books instead of stopping fires. Montag meets a girl named Clarisse who opens his eyes to the reality he is living in; the reality of a corrupted society.
The rise of Socialism, which began in the 1800s, has changed and influenced a number of institutions; which have been affected in a very negative manner. Economies, family structure, education, and politics are just a few that have been negatively affected. Socialism has never been a positive answer for issues in this world. It causes whole economies to collapse and families to break down.
If you were to change something about the education system in the U.S, what would you change? How would you critique the quality of education? Education historian Diane Ravitch answers these questions in her excerpt that was published in 2014, “The Essentials of a Good Education.” In her text Ravitch argues that the education system is flawed and that the vision of a good education is unfair and unequal. Ravitch supports her claim by providing examples of the negative effects of the educational system and using historical context.
The main argument is that perceived throughout the reading is that the schools itself is failing students. They see a student who may not have the greatest test scores or the best grades, and degrade them from the idea of being intellectual. Graff states, “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic” (Graff 244). Schools need to channel the minds of street smart students and turn their work into something academic.
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.
Graff explains how kids with street smarts aren’t interested in traditional education and consequently don’t do well in subjects of school studies. In his essay Graff states, “I was your typical teenage anti-intellectual-or so I believed for a long time. I have recently come to think, however, that my preference for sports over schoolwork was not anti-intellectualism so much as intellectualism by other means.” (Graff 245) Graff thinks the education system is not benefiting from students’ street smart because students cannot use the cleverness they have for what interest them and apply it into their school work. I agree that by using what a student already knows will not only help benefit their learning experience, but it will also keep the
Think about a time where you have been told to write on a subject that you have no interest in. How did the assignment turn out? Most students would agree that the end result of the assignment was most as anlytical and well thought as it could have been. In the short excerpt “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, Graff thoroughly argues that having students discuss and explore topics that are of interest to them “through academic eyes” (250) could develop the students into intellectual beings. When Graff says, “through academic eyes” (250), he means that the students develop, explain, argue, and academically explore their interest in a higher order way of thinking.
In his essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff criticizes schools “for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (244). Graff argues that intellectualism does not only have to be something that is achieved through this idea of “proper” education which is obtained through school work, but it can also come from the form of “street smarts” which is referred to those who learn things outside of an academic environment, for example their neighborhood. He makes a good point here because if a student is more interested in what is being taught, they will be more likely to engage in the lesson and obtain the information. Schools should give students the opportunity whether they are interested
Graff argues that school should take these street smarts and make them work on academic work. Graff also implies that street smarts are more important than