Hidden Intelectualism.

In the article Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff suggests that schools are overlooking a certain type of intelligence. He points out that while some children might struggle with math, reading, or science; those same children make know how to rebuild an engine or which restaurants serve the best Saganaki. Graff shows the reader this by reminiscing about his childhood, when he says.

“Until I entered college, I hated books and cared only for sports. The only reading I cared to do or could do was sports magazines…. In short, I was your typical teenage anti-intellectual – or so I believed for a long time. I have recently come to think, however, that my preference for sports over schoolwork was not anti-intellectualism so much as intellectualism by other means.”

Graff takes this opportunity to be very blunt with his point. He goes out and tells the reader that he, as a child, exhibited intellectualism by other means. He also points out that in school it isn’t considered popular or cool to be an intellectual. He offers this as an explanation as to why lots of kids shy away from the stereotypical intellectualism. Later in the Essay he says “Being “Tough” earned you complete legitimacy… If you were less than negligible as a fighter… you settled for the next best thing, which was to be inarticulate, carefully hiding telltale marks of literacy.”

This type of hostility toward what could be referred to as “Standard Intellectualism” causes “Hidden Intellectualism” to flourish. Graff suggests that teachers should use this to draw kids into school and make their homework more interesting. “It’s a god bet that if students get hooked on reading and writing by doing term papers on Source [Magazine], they will eventually get to On Liberty.”