Challenging the student

The challenge in unleashing this hidden intellectualism that all students most likely have is not necessarily in getting them to read about what interests them. The part that teacher’s must learn to do is to convince these students to look at their topic of choice through the eyes of an intellectual. Most students are going to read about what strikes them as “cool.” What the teacher needs to do is challenge them to analyze what makes that cool. What parts of, let’s say baseball, interests that student the most. Challenge that student to form an argument for why baseball is America’s pastime and what makes their favorite player their favorite player. But not only challenge them to find what they like about the sport but also have them look at the other side as well. Similar to planting naysayers in this class, have the student find some negative things about the sport and have the student do their best to respond to these negative aspects with convincing arguments.

The start of my personal response

On a more personal level, I happen to agree with Graff’s sentiment. Granted I still don’t quite consider myself much of an intellectual, I do believe that I am slowly (and ever so surely) arriving at that heralded podium known as intellectualism. However my own laziness still tends to hold me back. I digress though. When I was growing up in my own small town, I too was presented with an interesting dichotomy; that being should I strive to be an exceptional student, or should I play the role of class jock/clown. This was really quite a struggle for a grade-schooler that carried into junior high. It was also a struggle that I may have not handled that well either.

In my defense, I quite effortlessly made above average grades. The problem though was not in necessarily making grades as much as the apparent work that went into it. If I made an A on a test then I would pose a rather cavalier attitude in regards to the matter, acting as if it was by mere good fortune that I came out with such a grade. To act like I had truly attempted at making that grade would have potentially been catastrophic to my reputation. 

Unlocking Intellect

In Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism,” (2001) the age old problem of students having little to no desire to dive into academic topics is addressed.  However, Graff doesn’t see the problem to be the student’s desire, or lack thereof; so much as he does to see it as one of missed opportunity on behalf of the educator. Graff points out that there has never really been a connection between a given subject and the educational depth that a discussion can generate over said subject. There is no limit to subjects that can be intellectually inclined with a good question that is asked in regards to the topic, just the same there is also no limit to highly intellectually topics that can be drained out by irrelevance or lack of abstract thought. Graff offers his own experiences as an adolescent to strengthen his case.

 As a self-proclaimed “book hater” who cared only for sports, Graff states that it was not until entrance of college that he started to dive into more academic type readings. Like many young boys Graff read sports magazines and autobiographies of sports stars. These are topics that are normally viewed as novel and commonly pigeon hole their readers as being anti-intellectual. This is not necessarily the case though, as Graff so eloquently points out. According to him this is simply intellectualism acquired by other means. Although this may seem like a lofty idea, Graff makes a strong case for his theory.

He points out that growing up in a tough neighborhood; he had to make the choice between being openly smart or being beaten for being too smart. But in this decision and his debates with friends, albeit over sports, movies, or toughness, he was in the state of becoming an intellectual, even before he realized it was happening. During his lack or realization, he started to as he says, “learn the rudiments of the intellectual life.” This life that consisted of “how to make an argument, weigh different kinds of evidence, move between particulars and generalizations, summarize the views of other, and enter a conversation about ideas.” However, Graff’s first arguments were not about Shakespeare or the state of America or anything other topic labeled academic. His arguments were about baseball and movies and other topics deemed that lacked much intellect. But at the time these topics are what were most interesting to him. And at the time, these topics were more intellectual than anything he covered in school.

The problem according to Graff is that teachers do not tap into these resources enough. He says that “schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study.” The idea behind this is to take what seems as non-academia and look at it through different eyes; academic eyes to be exact. Graff encourages the educator to encourage the student in this essay. Because in getting the student to look at their main interests through different eyes, may open them up to what has been deemed as academia all along.