Upon further analyzing of Graff and Barry’s somewhat different essays, I was able to break them down and relate them to myself for better understanding.
Graff’s argument analysis
Graff’s argument of “Hidden Intellectualism” can be seen in almost every person that has gone through the traditional American School System. Graff’s story is a story of how he found his own “intellectual” talent, through nontraditional intellectual ways. Finding his talent through the passion of sports could not be easily found during his cookie cutter 1950’s educational experience. Simplifying this idea more, I see it as this: If school is meant to prepare us for the workforce and post educational success, we should all be educators. We’ve been learning the same basic skills for quite some time, and it’s the only thing most youth really know. The way people excel and specialize and find the things they enjoy and can do for the rest of their lives is by being deviant and going out on a limb to go against the system. (This relates to Barry’s quote “many of us secretly fear, and some of us are apparently ready to say, that if a student is not going to become a teacher of his language, he has no need to master it”). Now of course, every fully functioning member of society does need basic skills to go about their daily lives such as reading, writing, basic math, etc., but in the grand scheme of things, this can also be the reason that some of us are being held back from our full potential.
After graduating high school, the same people that were seen widely as “intellectually inferior” in high school are the same ones that are succeeding, doing their own thing, out on their own. They are not oppressed by the school system, that constantly put them down for being at a disadvantage in the classroom. This allows them to see the world from a different angle, figuring out the ways of being “free” in America and overall creating new collective ideas for society. The world is letting them be free, instead of being locked up inside of the educational prison cell.
Relating to Capitalism
I’m relating this hidden intellectualism to modern day capitalism. A friend and I were talking the other day and we came to the realization that “you can literally make money any way you want, doing what ever you want” (as long as its legal). You don’t need absurd amounts of school to go out and start your own business, or trade stocks successfully. Going out and finding something you like to and making money off of it is completely up to you. I see this when thinking about hidden intellectualism.
Barry’s argument analysis
Barry’s argument of literacy comes at the latter of the opposing argument. We would not be able to become “free” and go out on our own without literacy, at least to the basic point. Literacy can sometimes unlock different views on different subjects from angles that the younger, less educated cannot see. In a way, literacy is the key to creativity and reaching our full potential as a productive member of society.
We saw two different arguments, but in one way or another, they both need each other in order to be powerful and valid.
Me, as a hidden Intellectual
I think that I am a hidden intellectual in the form of poetry. Ever since I was a kid, I have always enjoyed putting together poems, almost like a puzzle piece. I especially like poems that rhyme, while at the same time, retaining their full meaning. I’m especially good at putting lots of different words and phrases together in my head (not on paper) and eventually get the right combination for the line I am about to write.
Recently, I have put some of these poems in song form and I have actually written 3 songs. I like being able to put all these large pieces together and have it come out as one large project that symbolize something meaningful to me.
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