Throughout history, the human race has grown smarter and created new things almost daily to help conform to the lifestyle we live in now. Things like cellphones, running water, or simply grocery shopping, things that people nowadays do not realize was not available to our ancestors 300 or more years ago. This has not only happened to improve daily lives but to improve medicine and science. Scientific breakthroughs happen very often but what happens more often is when the cause of these astonishing discoveries comes at the cost of someone else.…
This excerpt from They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing focused on the opinion of Gerald Graff regarding the application of street smart intellect in schools. Graff referenced the common theme of schools overlooking the intellectual potential of street smarts due to the association with anti-intellectual topics. He goes on to mention that schools and colleges consider educational sources to be in the form of subjects and texts instead of in social matters like cars, dating and sports. He feels that there is no connection between the discussion a subject can create and the weight of intellect it offers. For example, it is not proven that an individual will be able to have a more intellectual discussion after reading Shakespeare instead of a sports article.…
Can you imagine being forced to use different, but identical facilities due to your skin color? Take this situation except the supposedly identical resources were significantly worse for those with colored skin and it accurately represents the state of the United States for the century following the Civil War. Due to long standing discrimination towards blacks as a result of slavery, many efforts were made by political figures to disrupt and halt the ability of blacks to integrate seamlessly into society. One of the key methods in which this was achieved was through the separation of education between whites and blacks. While whites would have better funding, blacks would receive far less funding and overall an unsatisfactory education.…
The volcano of stress in my chest grows as my partner and I walk into the crowded lecture hall. It was the final round of the Valley Mid America Debate Cup, and we face a team ranked tenth in the nation. As we take our seats at the front of the room, the other team stands up and asks us a question that embodies the very foundation of debate. “Ready for the coin flip?”…
Education equality is a fundamental principle of social justice. Once a child estab-lishes his or hers identity they are simply becoming more aware of how others around them perceive and see them. The self-esteem begins to form and a value is placed on the identity. Dowling. M (2014:p.12).…
The United State’s current educational curriculum is a program that needs a revolution. One of the main problems with the current system is the lack of application to the real world. In classrooms across the nation today, the academic topics that are taught are boring and lackluster because they are not able to quench a thirst for cultural discussion. Our schools should begin incorporating conventionally unacademic subjects into daily school activities. Sports, for example, is a common hobby that is subject to a wider scope of debate and talk.…
Although in differing contexts, both experiences allows us to understand how meaningful discoveries…
Speaking of interdisciplinary study, Bhatia (2004) refers to two disciplines of economics and law and tries to compare the way disciplinary knowledge is structured and communicated in instructional contexts. He argues that: On the face of it, the two disciplines appear to be similar in that both of them tend to reinforce the relationship between theoretical aspects, processes and outcomes. However in a number of other ways, the two disciplines appear to be very different, especially in terms of the rhetorical strategies they employ to construct knowledge. (p. 34)…
In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff argues intelligence is not black and white, and there can be different ways for it to be shown. Specifically, Graff believes that in academic settings students should be able to be given the chance to study subjects that interest them. As the author puts it, “But they would be more prone to take on intellectual identities if we encouraged them to do so at first on subjects that interest them rather than ones that interest us.” Although some people believe the only intelligence is shown through academic work and school, Graff insists that schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they discourage students from turning their interests in nonacademic activities into something they…
Students who identify with gender or racial minority groups may see their group membership as an obstacle to academic success. Additionally, other theories suggest that the academic achievement minority-group children are jointly affected by cultural conflict both inside and outside of school (Nasir & Hand, 2006). These students may face obstacles such as nonsupport at home, parents who do not value education, or lack of relationships with teachers and peers that encourage learning (Nelson, 2014). A study by Marsh (2008) suggests that changing the organizational systems and structures of a classroom could have a positive impact on both students of color and students living in poverty.…
Developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, the Australian Curriculum provides Australian students with a world-class education comprising of the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary for life and work in the twenty-first-century. The primary goal of the Australian Curriculum is to foster students’ confidence and creativity, strengthening their love of learning and development into active and informed citizens (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2015). This paper shall explore the development of the Australian Curriculum, critically analysing the key criticisms of a unified approach to education. In addition, this paper shall examine the benefits of a unified curriculum,…
There have been so many amazing discoveries over the course of mankind and we owe all of the credit…
“Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.” This quote said by Daniel J. Boorstin, an American historian at the University of Chicago, is one way people may view the educational system in the United States. Getting an education is about learning things that one would have never studied before and improving one’s intellectual thought process. A similar quote my math teacher used to say: “It’s the same thang with another name,” brings out an argument that education is learning to think about what one knows in a different light. In Gerald Graff’s essay, “Hidden Intellectualism”, he responds to the educational system, arguing that street smarts are just as important as book smarts.…
Intelligence comes in many different ways; it does not just mean having above average grades or getting a higher education. A “street smart” individual is intelligent because they have common sense and have the ability to overcome problems of everyday life through the gained knowledge of experience. English and education professor Gerald Graff from the University of Illinois at Chicago uses his article, “Hidden Intellectualism” to discuss the importance of integrating “street smarts” with academics in order to help assist students in educational learning. Graff believes that knowledge goes beyond the academic settings and into the everyday life experiences. I agree with the past president of the Modern Language Association Gerald Graff that…
Anyone can be intellectual? At any educational level, different groups and types of students exist. Intellectualism can be approached and understood in many forms, varying from regular study works, vast literature, and knowledge provided at educational institutions. Often believed that it was only practiced by selected few persons, such as scholars with great academic “intelligence” but as we progress in society, many of the social constructs built over the years, have turned a whole one-hundred-eighty degrees, creating a generation of “hybrid” students, which share a sense of mixed intellect, adding topics to the conservative idea of intellect gathered from to sports, pop culture or anything that gathers one’s interest, as examples.…