Hidden Intelligence Gerald Graff Analysis

When there are so many different breeds of intellectuals in society, how and who decides who are the more meaningful or effective if they are not evaluated in different settings? Having a college degree or having great grades throughout the years in school is not necessarily a reflection of one person’s intelligence. In “Hidden Intelligence”, Gerald Graff argues for the merging of the “street smarts” students adequately into the classroom curriculum, stating that student’s interests are identified as anti-intellectual, and that the educational system ignores the potential that might emerge from their areas of interest. Graff also calls into question the legitimacy of the educational system that favors more notable literary books or subjects …show more content…
As he points it out "Give me the student anytime who writes a sharply argued, sociologically acute analysis of an issue in Source over the student who writes a lifeless explication of Hamlet or Socrates ' Apology” (205). The point being that students who are influenced by their “street smart” upbringing, have experienced what we can metaphorically call brain gymnastics while arguing about sports, TV or other subjects, and learning from their friends’ opposing views and challenging each other. Therefore, these “street smart” students could delve into their own intellectuality, influenced by how they learned throughout the years of arguments about subjects that have been in their surroundings and had so much time to sharpen their opinions about …show more content…
"I began to learn the rudiments, weigh different kinds of evidence, move between particulars and generalization, summarize the views of others, and enter a conversation about ideas” (Graff 201). The reasoning here being that through his own “street smart” experience, Graff benefited and acquired enough communication skills to enter a conversation and keep his argument throughout. As a result of these conversations with his friends, Graff believes that “street smart” get the better of “books smart”, in the sense that being “street smart” the student is the center of the knowledge rather than the “book smart” where the student is trying to absorb the subject’s point of view on a certain issue. A “street smart” student will have the advantage for being through arguments and tested his idea and can bank on it if needed in the future; instead the “book smart” student will have to keep referring to someone else’s