Incorporating the Best of Both Worlds

When asked which is better, being street smart or book smart, which would you choose? You don’t really need to look them up in Urban Dictionary to know that a person with street smarts is one with strong common sense, one who knows what is going on in the world, and one who knows how to handle different situations. On the other hand, a person with book smarts is defined a one who excels in academia, but not when it comes to common sense or reality. In “Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff, author of They Say I Say and professor of English at the University of Illinois in Chicago, argues many different points on the two. With his many distinctive arguments throughout the reading I coincide with Graff when he shows us that, yes street smarts is favored, but fundamentally, incorporating street smarts and book smarts together will have the best outcome.

Gerald Graff gives his own experience from when he was a younger child growing up in his neighborhood (200). He shares how his friends and himself had to find a common ground between being strong (street smart) and being intelligent (book smart). Graff explains that he needed to find this balance in between the two not only to fit in, but also because he still wanted to do well in school. He goes on to explain how being intelligent outside of school actually taught him more than what he learned while in school. Graff expands on this idea when he states, "I began to learn the rudiments of the intellectual life: 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" (201).

Through Graffs’ experience he concluded that students now a days could learn a thing or t...

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...l or tattoos in subjects such as History, Science, or English, but it could be worth the outcome in the end.

Overall Graff has shown us that there are many different aspects and sides to being street smart and book smart. He makes very ample arguments in which conclude that street smarts in many ways can benefit more than book smarts, but also that by combining the two could ultimately be the best culmination. In all that I have learned throughout the years in school, life experiences, and others around me, I believe one could reach their highest potential by taping into not only street smarts, but additionally applying book smarts.

Works Cited

Graff, Gerald. “Hidden Intellectualism.” They Say, I Say. 2nd ed. Ed. Gerald Graff and Kathy

Birkenstein. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. 198-205. Print.

Tobias, Christopher. Personal Interview. 15 September. 2011.