Can a person who never went to school be smart? Or are books the key to education? The misconceptions of society sees being smart is a person who went to school to learn a subject, or got a degree in a specific field. Others see book smarts as knowing your way through life. Gerald Graff argues in his essay, “Hidden Intellectualism,” that being street smart is better than being book smart. I agree and disagree with this because, being smart depends on where you grew up or your culture. I disagree with this because anyone can learn the information students learn at school, simply secondhand. If you grew up in a country like the United States of America, then you grew up to schools and PhD’s versus someone who grew up in a continent like Africa
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It’s hard to be book smart when your friends are always trying to bring you down. Graff claims that “The need to prove I was smart and the fear of a beating if I proved it too well” (266). This quote shows how students were scared to be different from the crowd that they would do anything to be cool. In other countries like Japan, students are expected to be book smart because they go to school practically almost every day. We rarely see someone with street smarts in countries like those. Street smarts don’t really exist over there and book smarts is like a dictator. Being book smarts is important in those countries. People who grow up with book smarts tend to get great jobs, instead of the street smart people. Graff says “I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture not because street smarts are non-intellectual, as we generally suppose, but because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly thank school culture, which seem pale and unreal” (268). Graff’s idea will not fit in schools like these where book smarts is everything. The thirst for more sport related subjects in school, will not make you smarter or get you a great job. Why be street smart and learn how to have conversations with your friends about sports, when you can be book smart and actually be something in your life than a sport
It’s hard to be book smart when your friends are always trying to bring you down. Graff claims that “The need to prove I was smart and the fear of a beating if I proved it too well” (266). This quote shows how students were scared to be different from the crowd that they would do anything to be cool. In other countries like Japan, students are expected to be book smart because they go to school practically almost every day. We rarely see someone with street smarts in countries like those. Street smarts don’t really exist over there and book smarts is like a dictator. Being book smarts is important in those countries. People who grow up with book smarts tend to get great jobs, instead of the street smart people. Graff says “I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture not because street smarts are non-intellectual, as we generally suppose, but because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly thank school culture, which seem pale and unreal” (268). Graff’s idea will not fit in schools like these where book smarts is everything. The thirst for more sport related subjects in school, will not make you smarter or get you a great job. Why be street smart and learn how to have conversations with your friends about sports, when you can be book smart and actually be something in your life than a sport