Hidden Intellectualism
In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, Graff describes how he believes that students should have the ability to take their nonacademic interests and turn them into subjects of academic study. He believes by integrating some of these nonacademic subjects it will improve the academic skills of students. I’m of two minds about Graff’s claim that students should pick their own nonacademic topics as objects of academic study. On one hand, I agree that by giving students the opportunity to study what really interests them, it will help them achieve more and stay actively focused in the classroom. On the other hand, I’m not sure if giving students that much free rein will cripple their academic abilities in the long run.
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Graff explains how kids with street smarts aren’t interested in traditional education and consequently don’t do well in subjects of school studies. In his essay Graff states, “I was your typical teenage anti-intellectual-or so I believed for a long time. I have recently come to think, however, that my preference for sports over schoolwork was not anti-intellectualism so much as intellectualism by other means.” (Graff 245) Graff thinks the education system is not benefiting from students’ street smart because students cannot use the cleverness they have for what interest them and apply it into their school work. I agree that by using what a student already knows will not only help benefit their learning experience, but it will also keep the