Literacy and Intellectualism “In Defense of Literacy,” written by Wendell Berry was the topic of this discussion in his own essay of whether or not people are really and truly educated or literate. He acknowledges this in his essay by first acknowledging that while many people do go to school and continue their education in this country, people who are supposed to be well-educated have writing skills which are really not that good.
Some points which are noteworthy are such as even some people who teach English are not even that good at the subject either in regards to reading or writing. They are not completely literate even though they are trying to teach others to be. People are just doing enough to get by in college, in order to earn
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As people who are trying to study, there are too many subjects when students are in school to truly become experts in one area. We seem to believe that we already know English so we do not strive to learn anything else. We are ruined by society to strengthen what we think we already know about literacy. I think about literacy and writing and consider how lazy we have become when it comes to communicating with others. We often use slang or even emojis or emoticons in everyday communication through text messages, social media, or even emails, have a weak vocabulary, and our means of communication is more informal and less thought out. I admit to doing this and not trying to read or write about topics that are more in depth to try to improve my literacy.
In response to Gerald Graff’s article about “Hidden Intellectualism,” he discusses street smarts and that often people are educated through what they learn in their environment. In many ways people are intelligent but this knowledge rarely goes unacknowledged in formal schooling. In this way, people are intellectual but are more able to apply what they know to what they have picked up about life or topics through various scenarios in their lives rather than through
A famous quote by Martin Luther King states “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.” The two articles “Hidden Intellectualism” and “Blue Collar Brilliance” both emphasis the author's opinion on the qualifications and measurements of someone's intelligence. “Hidden Intellectualism” focuses on students or younger people who have trouble with academic work because, they are not interested in the topic. Today, in schools students are taught academic skills that are not very interesting, the author mentions this is why children are not motivated in schools. The main viewpoint of this article is that schools need to encourage students
In an ever so changing society it is expected that principals such as education, demographics and much more continue to evolve each day. While most criticize society, others try to define it. Mike Rose, a professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Informational studies, is well known for his writing on issues of literacy. The article Blue-Collar Brilliance, written by Mike Rose, originally appeared in 2009 in the American Scholar magazine. The article not only presents a strong claim, but it also includes personal narratives, which increases the author 's credibility. In addition, connections between the opposing side and sufficient visuals strengthen Rose’s argument as a whole.
According to “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff says that “ Everyone knows some young person who is impressively “street smart” but does poor in school” ( Gerald Graff 244). He explains that to many people believe that one who is so intelligent in life cannot do well in academic work, and he or she needs spend extra time on his or her school works than things in sports. However, Graff used his own anti-intellectual experience to verify his opinion that street smarts are simply as important as school smarts, and he recommends school should take all these street smarts and apply them into good academic environment. Graff also believes we should allow students read literature or any things they first feel interested, for example “George Orwell, which is a writing on the cultural meanings of penny postcards is infinitely more
Co-author of “They Say/I Say” handbook, Gerald Graff, analyzes in his essay “Hidden Intellectualism” that “street smarts” can be used for more efficient learning and can be a valuable tool to train students to “get hooked on reading and writing” (Graff 204). Graff’s purpose is to portray to his audience that knowing more about cars, TV, fashion, and etc. than “academic work” is not the detriment to the learning process that colleges and schools can see it to be (198). This knowledge can be an important teaching assistant and can facilitate the grasping of new concepts and help to prepare students to expand their interests and write with better quality in the future. Graff clarifies his reasoning by indicating, “Give me the student anytime who writes a sharply argued, sociologically acute analysis of an issue in Source over the student who writes a life-less explication of Hamlet or Socrates’ Apology” (205). Graff adopts a jovial tone to lure in his readers and describe how this overlooked intelligence can spark a passion in students to become interested in formal and academic topics. He uses ethos, pathos, and logos to establish his credibility, appeal emotionally to his readers, and appeal to logic by makes claims, providing evidence, and backing his statements up with reasoning.
In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff pens an impressive argument wrought from personal experience, wisdom and heart. In his essay, Graff argues that street smarts have intellectual potential. A simple gem of wisdom, yet one that remains hidden beneath a sea of academic tradition. However, Graff navigates the reader through this ponderous sea with near perfection.
A person who has the ability to think critically, experienced conflicts, educated is known as an intellectual person. Author Malcolm Gladwell agrees with all of Gerald Graff’s asserts. In the article, “Hidden Intellectualism” and “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” authors Graff and Gladwell both insists that knowledge does not only belong to those people who are educated, but also it belong to the people who gets scholarly from media or from the environment, known as “street smarts”. Gladwell and Graff, both supports education, critical thinking, and wisdom delineates intellectualism.
A philosopher once said ”A child educated only at school is an uneducated child”. As we are living in a world where everyone knows the importance of schools and the meaningful of being educated, then why does he believe that a child is illiterate when he only studies at school? Are schools actually limit on areas of study and overlook the essential of real life experience? In the article “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff claims that schools and colleges are might at fault due to their omission of the “street smarts”-knowledge necessary to deal with reality-, and their failure to invest them into academic work. By stating the fundamental of intellectualism and the influence of personal interests, he informs readers that those street smarts,
In “In Defense of Literacy,” Wendell Berry explains literacy is a requirement, not an embellishment. Literacy is more than the ability to just read and write; it's also the ability to understand what a person is reading and make sense in what a person is writing. While some people may think that achieving literacy requires hard work and gets little outcome, I think that literacy makes people more ambitious, confident, more attentive, and more prosperous in life than those who are not literate. Joining in on conversations and voicing ones philosophies is easier if people are literate and educated, and people feel worthy of themselves when they have the ability to do so. People are more determined in life, whether it is with their professions
It encompasses the basic human “abstract principles that describe and explain how reading, writing, and oral language develop” (Handsfield, 2016, pg 13) and how people use “the real world experiences of teachers and students” (Handsfield, 2016, pg 13). Literacy is the driving force behind every action that we take throughout the day. Literacy determines who we vote for, who we befriend, where we interact and many other, seemingly human activities. We use this as a driving force to alter our life and to ultimately accomplish our goals. Since the creation of our country citizens has fought for what the constitution deems as unalienable rights. The rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, many of those rights were taken away by person’s who felt that they were more superior than people that were different. Those who thought they were more superiors prevented the people that were different from learning, because they believed that once you had the knowledge you would be able to overreach those in power and overturn them. However, this is only the first instance of literacy playing an important role in our past, present, and future lives. Even to this day literacy plays a major role in voting. Kaplan and Venezky reported that researchers Kirsch and Jungeblut found that “reading was found to relate positively to vote as well as was literacy levels” (pg 354). Therefore, the more knowledge and understanding you have of the different aspects of language, reading, writing, and oral language the better life one is able to
Street smarts are intellectual resources that are ignored by schools. It is the most informal version of intellect, generally relating to hobbies that seem anti-intellectual. Gerald Graff’s journal article Hidden Intellectualism shows that everyone is an intellectual whether they are aware of it or not. Using mainly ethos, he describes how sports can be a form of intellectualism because of the use of logic. He says it beautifully here, “I see now that sports provided me with something comparable to the saturation of life by argument… that my preference for sports over schoolwork was not anti-intellectualism so much as intellectualism by other means.”
Is it better to be book smart or street smart? Is it better to be happy and stable or unhappy and ‘rich’? Blue-collar jobs require you to learn skills that college cannot teach you; Rose points this out in his essay, stating: “It was like schooling, where you’re constantly learning” (277). In the essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose, he talks about how his mother worked as a waitress and how his uncle Joe dropped out of high school, eventually got a job working on the assembly line for General Motors and was then moved up to supervisor of the paint and body section. Rose suggests that intelligence is not represented by the amount of schooling someone has or the type of job they work. In this essay I will be explaining why Rose
Through literacy will come emancipation. So runs a theme throughout the various selections we have read thus far. But emancipation comes in many forms, as does literacy. The various aspects of academic literacy are rather obvious in relation to emancipation, especially when one is confronted with exclusion from membership in the dominant culture. In the various slave narratives we have examined, all but one writer, Mary Prince, managed to achieve academic literacy to varying degrees (although, Mary Prince was in the process of learning to read and write). And even though she was not literate, Mary was still able to have her story told. Frederick Douglass, made it a point to attain literacy at any cost. Most, but not all, of Toni Morrison's characters in Song of Solomon appear to have attained at least a modicum of literacy. In Push, Sapphire has her protagonist, Precious, pointed down a long road toward at least a minimal form of academic literacy that will allow her to become a more functional human being and a much more productive member of society. What part does literacy play in the advancement of the individual, and to what lengths will one go to achieve it? What part must the individual play to make certain that literacy leads to the desired or implied advancement? And, finally, is there a cost for literacy, or is it always something gained?
Throughout my childhood, the idea of having a college education was greatly stressed. As a result, it was my duty as the next generational child, to excel in my studies and achieve a life of prosperity and success. Learning became the basic foundation of my growth. Therefore, my youth was overtaken by many hours spent reading and writing what was known to be correct "Standard" English. I first found this to be a great shortcoming, but as I grew older, I began to realize the many rewards acquired by having the ability to be literate.
Literacy is a catastrophic problem around the world. With the information age coming in at blazing speeds, literacy is needed among every one in the nation. To solve literacy’s problems must effectively the United States must go the roots of where illiteracy begins. When this starts to happen nation wide, all able will be able to have the ability to read. How else would a nation survive in a literate world with out being literate itself?
Street smart students are much smarter than book smart students because of their knowledge and experiences. Author states in the article “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,” which means that street smart students are smarter than book smart students because of their vast amount of information about many things and previous experiences. Author is right about his point that street smart students get more out of their mistakes and learn more from their previous experiences. According to author, street smart students always try to learn from their mistakes where book smart students rely on the books and information from the studies. Book smart students never try to experience the situation of an issue, which gives them biased information and they don’t learn much, where street smart students experience the situation of an issue and learn much more than book smarts. Book smart students are also smart because they learn a lot of information from books and readings also they know how to use that information properly to succeed in academic area, but these students learn very much less from their mistakes and previous experiences to succeed, than street smart students.