The chapter “Hidden Intellectualism”, apart of the book They Say I Say by both Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. This chapter within the book suggests that education systems need to revamp the way they view street smarts and what is an actual “intellectual”. Within the passage Gerald Graff has several points to support this claim .
One thing brought to attention within the text is that schools and colleges tend to believe that the only subjects viable for academic and intellectual life is Shakespeare and classics alike. Gerald gives his own life experiences as an example. Gerald was a teen who enjoyed sports more than he did that of schoolwork. He thought himself to be an anti-intellectual at a young age. His schooling made him to believe …show more content…
Gerald says that schools should allow students to intellectually talk about their personal interests. Basically, hes saying that the realm of intellectualism relies on opposing texts, interpretations, theories, and evaluations much like any other subject. Things such as sports, fashion, entertainment have many models, stats, and methods to be discussed intelligently, just like how there are many philosophers with different views on the world to be discussed. For example, give a kid who is crazy about cooking an essay topic comparing “vegan cooking versus normal cooking”. It will bring better results, rather than giving a topic like “The history of fracking within the United States”. Gerald feels that if students are given these chances then they will be more likely to develop intellectual identities. This will help students to become comfortable with more academically weighted topics like the one previously stated.Though he acknowledges that this is not guaranteed to immerse a student in the world of complex and heavily weighted academic subjects. It will definitely help students to becoming more cultured and educated in skillsets such as writing, comprehension, and making intelligent arguments.
In the short chapter “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff stresses that the modern education systems fails to see the intelligence in that of the person interests of students. He argues that intellectualism is actually the ability to make arguments, compare evidence without bias, summarize the arguments of others, and being apart of intelligent conversation about
One thing brought to attention within the text is that schools and colleges tend to believe that the only subjects viable for academic and intellectual life is Shakespeare and classics alike. Gerald gives his own life experiences as an example. Gerald was a teen who enjoyed sports more than he did that of schoolwork. He thought himself to be an anti-intellectual at a young age. His schooling made him to believe …show more content…
Gerald says that schools should allow students to intellectually talk about their personal interests. Basically, hes saying that the realm of intellectualism relies on opposing texts, interpretations, theories, and evaluations much like any other subject. Things such as sports, fashion, entertainment have many models, stats, and methods to be discussed intelligently, just like how there are many philosophers with different views on the world to be discussed. For example, give a kid who is crazy about cooking an essay topic comparing “vegan cooking versus normal cooking”. It will bring better results, rather than giving a topic like “The history of fracking within the United States”. Gerald feels that if students are given these chances then they will be more likely to develop intellectual identities. This will help students to become comfortable with more academically weighted topics like the one previously stated.Though he acknowledges that this is not guaranteed to immerse a student in the world of complex and heavily weighted academic subjects. It will definitely help students to becoming more cultured and educated in skillsets such as writing, comprehension, and making intelligent arguments.
In the short chapter “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff stresses that the modern education systems fails to see the intelligence in that of the person interests of students. He argues that intellectualism is actually the ability to make arguments, compare evidence without bias, summarize the arguments of others, and being apart of intelligent conversation about