Gerald Graff's Response: Hidden Intellectualism

Superior Essays
Samual Yisehak
C. Petitti
ENGL 1105-42R
29 September 2016
Hidden Intellectualism Response Gerald Graff, a professor of English at the University of Illinois, wrote Hidden Intellectualism, an excerpt from the book They Say/I Say. The essay tackles the issue that one cannot be intelligent in any context except for the academic world. Intellectualism by any other subject is just as academic. I agree with Graff’s main point, however, I take umbrage with small details used in the essay. In any other world of that has interests or hobbies, that specific brand of intellectualism is just as important as academic intellectualism.
Graff writes that colleges and schools argue that subjects that are not inherently weighty and academic are not worth improving our intellects: “We assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato,
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Being book smart was necessary among the former group, but the latter group did not appreciate book smarts at all. Graff needed to know both of the groups’ protocols and accurately distinguish between both of them, and apply those protocols accordingly. Both groups have their own values, thoughts, actions, modus operandi, and norms that separate them from one another. Learning about both of them is intellectual in itself.
Graff then states that in his seeming anti-intellectual proceedings with his friends about toughness and sports, he “learned the rudiments of intellectual life: how to make an argument, weigh different kinds of evidence, move between particulars and generalizations, summarize the views of others, and enter a conversation about ideas” (Graff). Though he did not go through your average academic debates, the rules of engagement are one in the same; one shares ideas, has discussions, disagreements, and debates. The stringency of the debate rules is largely the only changing

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