The Theory of 'Hidden Intellectualism' and Book Smarts

“Street-smart” kids are intelligent but can’t apply what they know about life to an academic setting school. Schools and colleges should be at fault for not working with those street-smart kids steering them into great Scholastic work.

The author of 'Hidden Intellectualism', Gerald Graff hated books and his only interest was sports until he got to college. His only reading was done with sports magazines. He became fascinated by reading sports magazine and sports illustrated. Gerald even became obsessed with sports novels so as a child he was seen as an anti-intellectual teen, but the truth of the matter was that he was an intelligent teen on a different academic path to sports.

Growing up in Chicago neighborhood life was not manageable for Gerald. He was appreciated for being book smart but Gerald had to stay for limited if he was to make friends with his neighborhood youngsters. They were not as adored as Gerald was in several ways. Gerald wanted their permission but being a book smart was not favorable to them. The whole community would turn on him and offer up his self-respect.

Labeling people as academics or anti-intellectual confines them into a box with the idea that they are not good in an academic setting or vice versa. The box limits their mind and their ability to achieve different things.

In the 1950’s they believed that academic work was the only way that someone can be considered as an educated person. They had the idea that academic knowledge powers over street knowledge, or what they considered anti-intellectual people anti-intellectual people had the knowledge just not on an academic level. This perspective of the 1950s view on intellectualism compares with the present day's view.

In today’s society, the labeling of anti-intellectualism is on the rise. Many high school students are not involved in their academic task than in the past. And in technology plays aa massive role in this. Most older adults mistake the expressive creativity of students as anti-intellectualism. In mind people today still view intellectualism as having an understanding of only academic subjects. However today many people are very aware of other topics.

Street smarts may not be educated but they learn from their faults and make conclusions accordingly. Book smarts may be innocent in the real world as they have gained understanding from books and not practically. Both are part of the same coin. One may be successful in something and the other may have a better recommendation of something else. They are both informed in their own different ways. Nobody can deny that it is very important to be book smart but many people are not privileged and they increase knowledge living in their own environment.