Hidden Intellectualism Summary

In Gerald Graff's Hidden Intellectualism, Graff attests that intellect does not only exist in the scholarly form of thinking. Graff insists that knowledge can also take the form of "street smarts."
Graff uses his own experiences in his childhood to help form his argument. Graff tells about his disinterest in traditional academic subjects, and further elaborates on his love of sports. Growing up in Chicago, Graff suggests academic knowledge is a hindrance in social life, as anti-intellectualism ran rampant during his childhood, as it does today. Graff describes a saddening story of growing up torn "between the need to prove I was smart and the fear of a beating if I proved it too well." An intolerance of superiority amongst the youth caused a sort of internal conflict of brain versus brawn. As Graff aged, the "brawn" side of this heated debate was victorious. Little did he know, conversation with his friends helped develop analysis, arguments, generalizations, summaries and "other intellectualizing operations."
Due to the conversations involving his friends, Graff believes that "street smarts" overpower "book smarts" for the fact that both community and culture thirst more for sports and entertainment than for academic subjects. Subjects delegated in schoolwork were topics of isolation amoung pupils, opposed to batting averages and winning percentages during the major league baseball playoffs being a common article for discussion. Graff pleads the reader to take interesting topics that may be unrelated to school and look at them "through academic eyes." In otherwards, Graff essentially conveys the idea of taking street smart topics and turning them into intellectual debates. His stance portrays a culture that encorporates common subjects that can be discussed and viewed in different ways.