Ashton Chowning Response Essay English 102 January 31, 2017
Are Street Smarts Anti-Intellectualism?
There is a major controversy over students who are “street smart” being looked over by schools and colleges. Consequently, street smart students are getting negative attention because people associate those students with anti-intellectualism. Considering that students need to read intellectual writing to become an intellectual, but a student would be prone to intellectual behavior if teachers encouraged them to do so with subjects of the student’s interest. In his article “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff makes a compelling argument that students who are street smart have high means of intellect. Graff’s theory of street smart intellectuals is extremely useful because it sheds light on allowing students to choose their subjects of study, said subjects of study teach the rudiments of intellectual life, and encourages students to develop their nonacademic interests into objects of study.
There are several factors that can contribute to academic achievement, and encouraging students to choose their subject of study is one of them. As Graff puts it, “..they [students] would be more prone to take on intellectual identities if we encourage them to do so at first on subjects that interest them rather than ones that interest us” (Graff 381). Basically, Graff is stating that students will most likely do an assignment if they are encouraged to write the assignment over a subject they enjoy. I agree that students should be encouraged to portray subjects of their choice because of my experience with writing throughout school would have accelerated my passion for learning instead of decelerating it. For example, throughout my high school career, I have been forced to read books like Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet”. Do not get me wrong, I enjoy Shakespeare plays, but it seems to be counterproductive not to be taught about modern authors. Shakespeare does influence modern English, but teachers have explained his practices for decades; these practices work, but unless a new tactic is tried, we do not quite know if another tactic would not work better. Over time, generations have changed and so have their learning practices. Therefore, allowing students to choose what they wish to study would not only help academically, but also create new tactics for learning.
Another strong point that Graff makes is that when a student is allowed to choose their own subject of study, it teaches them how to be intellectuals. In Graff’s view, “ … in my reading of sports books and magazines, that I began to learn the rudiments of the intellectual life: how to make an argument, weigh different kinds of evidence, move between particulars and generalizations, summarize the view of others, and enter a conversation about ideas” (Graff 383). In other words, Graff believes that his subject of study taught him more rudiments than the assigned work he received. Graff is surely right about sports helping teach the fundamentals of intellectual life because, his process of thinking about the book or magazine is how a student would read an intellectual piece of writing. Students across the globe are becoming passionate about subjects and learn the steps of becoming intellectuals without a teacher's supervision. I too have done this without comprehending what I was accomplishing. For instance, I am extremely passionate about animal rights, therefore I do a lot of research on this topic and without being assigned I begin to experience the intellectual life. Once a student is assigned to a subject with no passion for it, the need to be intellectual ceases.
Graff has a very powerful opinion on encouraging students to develop their nonacademic interests into objects of study. According to Graff, “Making students’ nonacademic interests an object of academic study is useful, then, for getting students’ attention and overcoming their boredom and alienation...” (Graff 386). In making this comment, Graff urges teachers to encourage students to take their interest and make them into objects of academic study. Graff’s theory of encouraging students to choose their academic objects of study is useful because it allows students a sense of freedom. If I would have been able to write a term paper over Teen Magazine, then I eventuality would find myself interested in writing a paper over To kill a Mockingbird because I would understand the rudiments of writing the paper
In conclusion, in the article “Hidden Intellectualism” Gerald Graff makes many valid points on the subject of allowing students to choose their subjects of study, said subjects of study teach the rudiments of intellectual life, and encourages students to develop their nonacademic interests into objects of study. Yet the school system does not understand that a student does not need to read intellectual writing to be intellectual. In the end, students who are street smart are as deserving of good grades as book smart students; a student should not be snubbed because they do not have an interest in a subject assigned to them.
Work cited Gerald Graff. "Hidden Intellectualism." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 380-386. Print.