Summary Of Clueless In Academe By Gerald Graff

Academic work should not define intelligence nor should a job define ability; a person, regardless of grades, degrees, or job title, is an intellect. Together, Gerald Graff, a coauthor of They Say I say, professor, and former anti-intellect, author of "Hidden Intellectualism," and Mike Rose, professor, author, and in depth thinker, author of "Blue-Collar Brilliance," share two different perspectives on what an intellect truly is. Yet, both writings hold meaningful points and experiences to prove who qualifies to be an intellect. Society continuously focuses on what leads to a successful and rounded life: go to school, graduate, go back to school, get a degree, and then a job. It is believed that these high expectations of higher academics enables one to be more successful is correct; however, it is not. It is a person’s individual goals that give them the success they wish to have whether that be education, volunteering, or donating. Also, street smarts is not to be overlooked; a person with common sense can know more than a Doctor. Typically, a person can have either common sense or intelligence, not both. Street smarts is, without a doubt, a superior quality to possess as it encompasses more in life than just a degree does. For example, it is more appropriate to know how to cross a street properly in life than know how to perform a craniotomy. Furthermore, one does not gain knowledge and life lessons through school alone, but through experience,

Gerald Graff’s article “Hidden Intellectualism” asserts that academic settings, such as public schools, need to incorporate students’ personal interests into the school policy so that students are more inclined to engage in an academic mindset. The problem, however, is that the school systems do not attempt to tie non-academic material with academic assignments, therefore neglecting students the opportunity to engage in intriguing, intellectual conversation (Graff 245). Targeting students, educators, and administrators, Graff makes an effective explicit, qualified claim of policy as he utilizes the rhetorical strategies of ethos, logos, and pathos.

She begins the article by discussing the disparity between truth and a fact. Sommers would like students to interpret the material for themselves, ergo seeking out their own truth and facts; rather than compiling arguments from existing sources with no correlation to the material or individual’s argument. She taxes the students with the task of becoming the source and using fact to support their own argument. In fact, Sommers purpose of writing the paper is to explain why an individual uses sources, and to identify ways people can view the sources that they use for their

Co-author of “They Say/I Say” handbook, Gerald Graff, analyzes in his essay “Hidden Intellectualism” that “street smarts” can be used for more efficient learning and can be a valuable tool to train students to “get hooked on reading and writing” (Graff 204). Graff’s purpose is to portray to his audience that knowing more about cars, TV, fashion, and etc. than “academic work” is not the detriment to the learning process that colleges and schools can see it to be (198). This knowledge can be an important teaching assistant and can facilitate the grasping of new concepts and help to prepare students to expand their interests and write with better quality in the future. Graff clarifies his reasoning by indicating, “Give me the student anytime

In the world of academia, from Graff’s perspective, street smarts are associated with anti-intellectualism. Graff states “we associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty an academic.” He argues that educators should broaden their aspect of material they once preserved as inefficient. Graff implies that a person who is studious enough can find substance in any content. He reasons that intellect can be uncovered and observed in various forms, hence the name “hidden intellectualism.” He suggests that the Education system overlooks the interest of the students because they consider their interest irrelevant.

Many are quick to disregard education’s role outside of the classroom. According to Mike Rose, “a good education helps us make sense of the world and find our way in it” (Rose 33). Rose emphasizes the value in the experience of education beyond the value of education for the purpose of custom or intelligence; he explores the purpose of going to school in terms of how he defines himself and his personal growth in the stages of his academic career. By reflecting on his personal experiences and how those gave him the tools applicable to his daily life, he emphasizes why education should never be overlooked. Rose’s use of referencing relatable experiences in a logical manner makes his argument persuasive to the readers and he succeeds in making the readers reconsider why education matters to them. Mike Rose’s Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us effectively persuades his audience of the importance of education beyond the classroom, which proves true in our everyday lives because the essential aspect of education is what we do with it and how it helps develop one’s personal growth.

Education is meant to broaden the minds of incoming generations to the diverse cultures and aspects of the world. While its purpose is meant to open up horizons, it has also held up the task of oppressing opposing thoughts and judgments. Author James Baldwin exposes this truth in his article, “A Talk to Teachers,” as he chastises the education system’s contradicting actions inasmuch as the support of an all-encompassing education while scorning unconventional thinking. Baldwin’s purpose to confront the antithetical activity to hopefully change the system’s ways is attempted by persuading teachers who “deal with the minds and hearts of young people” that a paradox of education occurs when students develop a conscience--they become “at war” with society--is valid in that education should allow development for individual thoughts and varied opinions to challenge for the reconstruction of society’s oppressive nature.

In Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff, he begins with the argument of “street-smarts” versus “school-smarts”. Graff explains that school-smarts can be hidden within street smarts and can be learnt through not just talking with friends, but also from the media and our surroundings, hence the “hidden” intellectualism. He goes onto explain that “schools and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street-smarts” (198) because these types of intellectualism are actually considered anti-intellectualism. Graff then begins to discuss that intellectualism is often looked down upon within schools, and people that are considered “school-smart” are seen as nerdy, or boring. We learn that as a child, Graff was afraid of bullying and

That is in the pursuit of examining how politicization and indoctrination into extremist viewpoints has become embedded into education. Hardly objectionable criticisms of education that are as old as education itself are implanted into a revolutionary critical theorist lens. Plutarch in around the year 100AD posseted that, "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." He is describing his misgivings with a situation similar to Freire’s Banking concept. These going on two millennium old criticisms are not original, nor do they convincingly support a revolutionary viewpoint when Freire espouses them anymore than they supported Hellenistic-pantheism when Pultarch espoused them. Yet when these are exposed to students in Freire’s work, many students find themselves personally relating to his analysis of attitudes held by teachers and their harmful modes of behavior on an emotional level, similar to a newspaper horoscope reading “Capricorns will feel especially oppressed by their teachers today due to the alignment of Neptune.” Of course a system of ‘oppressor’ and ‘oppressed’ and the need for revolution is taken part-and-parcel with these surface-level unfalsifiable armchair accusations. In this very class I observe people debating

The issue being debated in the article “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff is street smarts versus book smarts. Gerald Graff is an English professor at the University of Illinois and has written many books. The author claims that people are better off if they are more street smart than book smart. The authors is very persuasive using real life examples. I although disagree with this claim. I think that you need an equal mix of both street and book smarts.

I sat quietly in my room, staring at the stacks of newspaper published in different languages on my desk. The drastically different opinions these newspapers express on the same issues had always surprised me. Though dissimilar from one and another, the arguments of each article appears convincing. Not knowing which one to believe, I fell into a vortex of confusion. When I was little, I thought each question can only has one solution just like every single door that can only be unlocked with one unique key. In elementary school. I was always told to behave and think in ways my teachers told me to. If two are argue about the same issue, one must be right and the other must be wrong. As usual, there is never room for doubt. When I was fourteen,

“Hidden Intellectualism,” an excerpt from They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff, explains the importance of having diverse intellectualism and helping the kids with street smart intellectualism turn it into academic growth. The author’s claim in this excerpt is that school and colleges are missing out on an opportunity of helping the street smart kids grow their intelligence into good academic work. The significance in the author’s claim is that the students who believe they don’t have much of an opportunity in school or other things related to academics, realize they do.

What is hidden intellectualism? Hidden Intellectualism was written by Gerald Graff in 203 telling us, the readers how people can be street smart but do poorly in school. Graff is telling us that it is a shame we do not tap into these hidden talents. They tend to look past the people who do poorly in school but do just fine if not better than most in the real world. As a person you do not realize how much is learned from real life interactions, not just what is taught in the classroom. We constantly face competition and our lives are molded by the choices we make and how we can make anything we want from our lives.

Classroom experiences are like polyatomic ions: some are positive while others are negative. While the majority of the experiences at the West Genesee School District have been positive, I can recollect one experience that was particularly negative. During the duration of my Advanced Placement global history course, I was the subject in a class, that, by definition, would be closer to the "problem-posing" classroom that Paulo Freire describes in his piece "The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education". In his works, Paulo Freire asserts that the “problem-posing education makes them [the students] critical thinkers” (Freire 221). As Freire describes, a class that implements the problem-posing policy is one in which students are to become critical thinkers. Freire would have been ecstatic that other educators carried out his ideas in their own “problem-posing” classroom. My teacher me made it unequivocal that this class was going to challenge the way we analyzed and understood history. The teacher continued to describe the role of the student in the classroom; the educator expected the pupil to analyze readings and argue about what the pupil deemed to be the most important concepts presented. Regardless of the content, Egyptian hieroglyphics or Genghis Kahn, while the students studied history, the teacher insisted that the students evaluated the relationships between the causes, effects, and relevance of various topics throughout the course. In addition, the student prepared to discuss

Throughout my short time here at Walden, I have taken so much from each of my courses in my journey as a Master’s candidate in Science Education. I have learned so much about reforming and editing my teaching philosophy and practice in my quest to become a more effective administrator. I cherish this last assignment, because in my mind it is such a celebratory time, that recognizes the effort and the work that went into the past seven weeks – and also really reflecting on what has transpired in my thought processes.