Gerald Graff's Article: Hidden Intellectualism

Do you believe that playing football can help you succeed in school? Have you ever thought about disagreeing because schools overlooked non-academic interests? In the article, “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff argued that schools ignore street smarts. He said that book smarts do not have non-academic interests. He used his background with street smarts to support his argument by explaining why sports was his favorite interest instead of reading academic books. Graff’s argument is reasonable because of his tone, his personal experience, and his view that schools overlook non-academic intellectualism. Graff developed a stronger tone when he was in a conversation with his friends and became more social. He wrote that discussing with his …show more content…
He wrote that sports later become more interesting than doing school work (Graff 63). I agree with Graff that a stronger tone develops the more you dig into your own interest. He believed that a non-academic interest can help students succeed in school because they can apply the interest they have to get through the academic environment. Furthermore, it is true that something that you like can make you feel that passion towards your own interest when you found out what you are good at instead of anything that is academic. No matter the academic subject, a strong volume of tone you have can let you go further beyond your expectation of succeeding in school. This can even make the school improve on their students that their own interest can make them go …show more content…
He wrote that we think that those who are street smart did not apply their intelligence in school (Graff 61). Graff made an excellent point that students who are street smart can fail in school. Furthermore, a solution to the problem is for schools to let them write about their own non-academic interest. A teacher using life experiences to teach a topic in a textbook would help the students who are street smart to understand it more. That would also help the students who are street smart to understand there are things in life that happen outside the book. According to Jonah Lehrer’s article from The New Yorker, “Why Smart People Are Stupid,” They overlook their choices from their mental thinking, leading to the wrong choices (Lehrer). Many people who are street smart tend to make mistakes saying that they are smarter than other people. They tend to overthink the easy things that they know how to do that surprises schools that focus more on them. To not have that happen, teachers can assign an assignment that they can do on their own so that they are showing the effort they put in school. That can help them do as good as those who are book