Gerald Graff

Gerald Graff makes an excellent argument in his essay Hidden Intellectualism. His thesis clearly states, “I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture not because street smarts are nonintellectual, as we generally suppose, but because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly than school culture, which seems pale and unreal.”  This writer believes there is so much more to learn than just math and English. He believes schools do not tap into the intelligence of many children, they just assume the child is not smart if the child is not automatically a fast learner in the main subjects. Plus throughout his essay he says that to live life one needs to know a lot more than just those regular school subjects, and it is usually the kids that have this knowledge the ones to be considered “street smart” as if it were something bad. Though in reality its knowledge we all need, according to Gerald Graff.

I believe Gerald Graff makes a good argument by using his own personal experiences to prove his point. I am sure many people were able to relate to his story. Gerald Graff tells us that his love for sports made him a good reader and writer. By using this example he is pretty much telling us that any topic we love can help us along the way to be better at school.

I agree with Gerald Graff when he says that there is so much more to learn than just math and English. I also agree with the part in which he says school needs to be interesting so that the student can have something to look forward to. School should be about learning to survive in life. It should teach students to live by what is morally correct. I have loved school in the past years only because I have had awesome teachers. Once my teachers became boring, I lost my interest for school; I had nothing to look forward to in class but sleeping for a whole period. If school was a place full of entertainment it would be a place everyone would love instead of hate.