"Hidden Intellectualism" Summary

In the article “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff explains that many people know someone who is “incredibly street smart” but that person does not do well in school, but Graff argues that street smarts are just as important as school smarts. To many people this is seen as a waste, and that this person should spend more time on their school studies than things in sports or popular culture. But Graff argues that schools should take these street smarts and channel them into good academic work. Graff also believes that to be able to have students read literature such as George Orwell; we need to first have the students read things that interest them, encourage them to dive deep into whatever their reading, forming an opinion and arguing their point. Allowing students to do such reading, Graff believes will cause the student to naturally gravitate to more intellectual readings, as they will want to argue points and form opinions.
Graff finds that sports, which are normally thought of as less intellectual as school, to be more intellectual than school. The fact that sports are full of arguments, debates, problems for analysis, and intricate statistics, makes it more compelling and intellectual than school. Graff implies that street smarts are more important than school smarts because they are more real, they are things that can be used in the real world. But the problem is, street smarts and school smarts need to be coupled together to work well. If you only have one or the other, it will not work well. But in the end Graff would rather have the student who can write an argument about a magazine article or something the student enjoys, and that it can be done well, than a student who writes an argument over Hamlet that has no real opinion either way.