In “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff makes the claim that street smarts are better than book smarts because he believes that school culture does not satisfy an intellectual thirst the way that street smarts do. The author uses the term “street smarts” as means of describing the skill set that include, “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, that come from anti-academic topics”. (Graff) He primarily uses his experience growing up living near the hood to describe how futile academic intelligence becomes when you are faced with situations where you would need to keep yourself safe, learn how to effectively communicate with others, understand the importance of code switching when speaking to different sets of people, and more. Graff goes on to say that too often, “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic.” (Graff) He introduces the idea that schools should implement more topics that students like while also illuminating the fact that although a student gets to write about a passion of theirs does not mean that it will be well written out. Needless to say that it would also be the same for the student who just so happens to have a passion for Shakespeare's art work but has issues with articulating their words for written assignments. This further proves the fact that it is important to separate the amount of interest in a topic and the skill qualities to write about these topics. To be clear, the author isn’t saying that school in itself is the issue. It's just that schools should encourage students to use nonacademic interests to help them excel in their educational careers. In other words, schools should utilize these nonacademic interests as a tool instead of making students fit into standards that some students weren't meant to fit in the first place. Therefore, Graff’s purpose for writing this article was to highlight the fact that people tend to erroneously correlate one’s intelligence with their ability to associate themselves with typical academically approved topics, rather than considering the fact that intelligence comes in many forms.
Upon reading, “Hidden Intellectualism”, I instantly felt a connection with the author in terms of his experience with school because although I grew up making sure my grades were top tier to simply please my parents and most of all feel adequate, being in school was certainly more of a challenge for me because I felt that my worth was only tied to my GPA. While being in school, you’re not really seen unless you're one of the top ten students in your grade. I say this because my personality caused me to be more in the background rather than being in the spotlight because I didn’t necessarily have the looks or the extroverted qualities to be one of the “popular” or most liked people in my school. My grades were the only thing that allowed me to have some sort of recognition in my school. I say all this to say that I was only seen as an intellectual because of my grades and not because I liked art, dance, music, poetry, and many other things that I’m passionate about. When in reality, I don't believe that academic success equates to intelligence. Being good in school mostly has to do with your work ethic and discipline to do the things that you don’t find any interest in whatsoever. The only reason why I ended highschool with a 3.9 GPA was because I was determined to turn in all my assignments and study for exams while soon forgetting all the information I passively memorized because I never cared to learn about those topics in the first place.
I wholeheartedly do believe that missing the true definition of intellectualism is one of the main issues that schools have today. Especially the K-12 school system because it felt like testing was one of the main things we had to worry about. I remember in the school year of 2015-2016, when the PARCC exams were optional because schools were finally realizing that we shouldn’t tie a student’s intelligence to the score that they have on an exam that probably won’t even benefit them in the long run. One thing about me is that during the season of state testing, I would simply sleep through most of them and guess on a good amount of the questions. I really didn’t give not one bit of a care in the world about those state exams because I knew my grade didn’t depend on it. In school, I was literally only concerned with my grades. That's one of the only things that made me feel secure about myself. One of the main consequences of schools missing the true definition of intellectualism is that it causes many students to underestimate their ability to be a “smart person” because they feel as if their interests that they are passionate about aren’t what the academic world would deem intellectual. As a result, students who don’t fit into the academic criteria would most likely go around feeling like the world would only accept their academics, and call themselves “dumb” or “stupid”. When in reality, they have so much more to offer but the school system tends to place a veil over their potential.
The world needs non-academic people such as artists, fashion designers, cleaning services, delivery services, motivational speakers, customer services, and many more. Life is much more than just academic success. As for me, when I’m writing about topics that I love and know about, I feel like there’s more to write about and I’m able to go more in depth because I most likely have some sort of prior knowledge tied to that topic experience. I feel like it’s even better that way because everyone has different and interesting life experiences that they would be happy to share. Wouldn’t you want to hear more about that rather than their robotic view of shakespeare? I certainly agree with the author when he states that booksmarts are better than street smarts because there are many types of intelligence and research shows that the most important type of intelligence is emotional intelligence. This is because throughout all of our lives, we are guaranteed to come in contact with people who have feelings including ourselves. Learning why some may act in certain ways, and why someone may say certain things causes you to effectively discern what your next steps should be with the people around you. For example, if you come across a rude cashier who seems to be having an attitude with you, you would first think about if this person might be having a bad day, or maybe they’re going through some things at home that they might be bottling up. An emotionally intelligent person might be able to extend grace over that cashier or even go so far as to ask them if they’re doing okay. Most importantly, the emotionally intelligent person wouldn’t take it personally, and allow the cashier to ruin their day or they’re self esteem. Emotional intelligent people realize that we are all humans, and we all need grace because we aren’t perfect. Also that we should take the harsh criticisms that we may come across with a grain of salt because people tend to project their insecurities onto you. It’s your responsibility to have that kind of discernment. Not only that but you would also be able to be more intune with yourself and your feelings and to better manage and control them.
I say all of that to say that academic intelligence is wrongly put on a very high pedestal when there are way more other types of intelligence that can get you even farther in life. In other words, book smarts can only get you so far in life if that’s the only thing that you are focused on. All while being intelligent in other things that your heart desires can take you to the life you were destined to live. The main lesson that you can learn from “Hidden Intellectualism” is to just be true to yourself and your life’s purpose