Kaylee Rucker English 102 Response Essay February 1, 2017
Intellectualism vs. Academics Does school actually teach students what they need to know or just the standards for being “intellectual”? In Gerald Graff’s article entitled “Hidden Intellectualism,” Graff discusses the issue that not all students are interested, or even need to know, the subjects taught in school. Graff believes basic core classes taught are important, but a student’s interests should be incorporated into their schooling to make their education more rewarding. In the article, Graff accurately addresses the difference between “intellectualism” and “academics,” the idea that students are more than their academic grades, and the advantage of incorporating students’ interests in their education.
Intellectualism has somehow become measured by how well people know the academics they learned in school. All knowledge of other topics is considered useless. Graff introduced this idea by explaining, “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic” (380). Graff, on the other hand, believes intellectualism is based on knowledge in what each individual person has an interest (381). I agree that intellect can come in many different forms, not just what a person remembers from math or science class; this is a point that needs emphasizing since many people still believe intellect and academics have the same meaning. Subjects that interest a person are what that person is most knowledgeable about, and a different subject not taught in school could be more intellectual than school.
Concepts believed to be non intellectual can, in some cases, interest and satisfy a student more than subjects that these students learn about at school and have no interest in. Schools have core classes that are considered the basis for all learning, and these classes are important. However, the issue with this is not all students care about these classes and not all students will even use these classes in their futures. Graff emphasizes, “I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our culture not because street smarts are non intellectual, as we generally suppose, but because they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly than school culture, which seems pale and unreal” (384). I agree that street smarts can be just as intellectual as book smarts because my experience with people getting bad grades in school and then making a great life for themselves out of a subject not taught in school confirms this idea. There are countless rewarding career paths that are not taught in school, so there are many skills to be learned outside of school that may be better for a certain student.
Life after school is different from what life is during school; the skills employers want cannot all be learned in school. Graff argued, “...that the real intellectual world, the one that existed in the big world beyond school, is organized very much like the world of team sports, with rival texts, rival interpretations and evaluations of texts, rival theories of why they should be read and taught…” (384). If Graff is right that post-school life is not organized like school is, as I think they are, then we need to reassess the popular assumption that students with good grades will do better in life than students with lower grades. Granted, school does teach some qualities that are useful in post-school life, like competition. However, school does not teach competition directly against another person. Competition in school is simply gaining as much knowledge on a subject as a student can and regurgitating it back to their teachers. All-in-all it is clear that students interests are not always academic interests; a student’s education should incorporate their interests in an analytical and educational way to better prepare the student for their future and to hold the student’s interest.
In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff discusses his disagreeance with the idea that a person’s intellect is solely based on their academic success. I agree with his thought that some student’s interests are not academic interests, and those subjects should be incorporated in their education. Graff clearly, and accurately, asserts that intellectualism and academics are not the same, academics don’t define a person’s chance to succeed, and a student’s interests should be involved in their education.
Works Cited Graff, Gerald. “Hidden Intellectualism.” They Say, I Say: with Readings, 2nd ed., W.W. Norton & Company, New York and London, 2009, pp. 380–387.