In “Hidden Intellectualism,” author and professor Gerald Graff describes his idea of ​​what book smarts and street smarts really are. It details how new ideas can help teach and make our education system something great and that perhaps street smart students could be the factor that traditional education is missing that could make it great. Graff begins by talking about the education system and why it is flawed in many ways, but in particular one: today's schools neglect the intellectual potential of street-smart students, and how, by shaping lessons so that they adapt more easily to the way people actually learn, we could become something that can compete with the world. In schools, students are forced to recite and memorize boring and heavy works in order to prepare them for the future and higher education. “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently heavy and academic. We assume that it is possible to talk intellectually about Plato, Shakespeare, the French Revolution and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating, fashion, sports, television or video games. (Graff, 198-199) In everyday life, students are able to learn and teach themselves something new every day. It is these students, the "young people who are remarkably 'intelligent' but who do poorly in school" (Graff, 198), that we exclude from education and force to seek life in places that generally know less successful than those who attend college or university. It was then that Graff shifted the focus of his essay toward himself. It would have been easy to continue talking about the injustice that the education system has created against those who... middle of paper ... whether it is better to learn street smarts or the intelligence of books cannot be fully answered. . Keeping every student happy and working without interruption is a bit of a far-fetched idea, as not everyone will be happy with the changes and adjustments. We can, however, work toward a system that allows both sides of the educational field to succeed, regardless of how they learn. Looking at Graff's statement, one can conclude that the way a student learns may need to be re-evaluated and transformed into something new that can adapt and grow with each type of student in order to enrich the standard idea of an education that is truly for everyone. Works Cited Wieder, Ben. “The Thiel Scholarship pays $100,000 to 24 talented students not to attend college.” The Chronicle of Higher Education of May 25, 2011: 3. Online. Graff, Gerland. Hidden intellectualism. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2010. Print.