Hidden Intellectualism Summary

Who is your audience?
The audience I want to appeal are people who do not know who is Gerald Graff and are not familiar with his Intellectualism essay. B.) How you like the readers describe the personality you present? The personality I want to convey in this summary is someone who has read Graff’s essay and is able to comprehend what he is trying to say. C.) What questions does your paper answer?

Some of the questions I answer in my summary are who is Gerald Graff, How he came to philosophy his theory or thought of street smarts, show his thesis ,and demonstrate a few of his thoughts.

Hidden Intellectualism
In Gerald’s Graff essay Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald argues that many educators and other people do not take advantage of students full potential, stating that there is intellect far beyond academic skills, intellectualism can also be found in “street smarts” . Thorough out the essay, Graff supports his argument by providing us with his own life experience. Gerald was a man who loved sports, but hated books and anything involved with academics. Growing up in the Melting Pot of Chicago, being intellectual was not in favor for Graff. He lived deciding between two sides, having academic knowledge or streets smarts. Little did he realize that the squabbling of sports with his friends was making him smart and intellectual, he was analyzing, thinking, reading and learning. As Graff aged the brawl inside of him solved, and the intellect part won; the experience he had as a child opened his eyes, and saw that the love of sports info made him smart. It was his street smarts that got him where he is, Graff continues that if there is no connection between text and student.

Students cannot find a life connection of their street smarts to the textbook thus making it boring and unappealing. Graff believes that street smarts are looked down upon because they are not good enough to teach, schools are missing the potential a student holds by not taking advantage of their non-academic knowledge. Furthermore, Gerald tries to persuade the reader by arguing that if schools were to teach information that appealed to the students than maybe they could see the work with “academic eyes.” In other words, students are able to stay focused and maintained with the subject rather than learning a forced subject. Above all, Graff argument takes a favor to teach street smarts, to tap into the student body true potential. Gerald’s Graff stance is one that teaches subject that are not considered academic and to teach them for a better student.