"Hidden Intellectualism" summary

In Gerald Graff’s article “Hidden Intellectualism” the author responds to a popular belief that students who do poorly in school are inherently un-intellectual. Graff suggests that this view fails to take note of the “street smarts” many student poses outside of school. He presents the idea that “street smarts” are no less intellectual than academic pursuits done in school but are rarely considered intellectual. Graff summarizes his belief that we have a cultural respect to institutionalized education and a failure to respect outside forms of intellectualism. He believes, “we associate those street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns. We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider weighty and academic”. He is not in agreement with these associations and instead considers fields of non-scholarly thought intellectual as much as the thinking stressed in schools. Graff goes on to add the idea that “street smarts” can be used to spark student interest in academic pursuits with very positive results. Overall, Graff discusses "hidden intellectualism" in street smart students.



I think this strategy worked very well. I just tried to remain unbiased while presenting the things I wanted to write about. Graff goes into more detail with sports examples and magazines, but I do not care for either and do not want to respond to that part of his writing. Still, I think I presented his whole arguement. If I had to change this I would go further into detail with his examples, its just that his examples do not interest me.

If I was going to use this summary in an essay about changing how schools teach students, I would just add to this summary. I would elaborate on his ideas about teaching these students.

For and essay arguing that these street smart students are as "scholarly students" I would summarize and discuss Graff's personla experience. His childhood torn between tough and smart would be the baises of this summary.