Gerald Graff Intellectualism

There are two schools of thought, when it pertains to the topic of intellectualism. On one end, many individuals believe intellectuals read, write and review great literature and other areas of classical education. On the other end, there are those that believe collective experiences in all phases of life, completely reaches beyond what a person is able to learn alone.
Generally and perhaps to an extent, we associate the educated life of the mind with serious subjects and texts. Gerald Graff agrees that students need to read models of intellectually challenging writing, he also finds fault with the schools and colleges for not tapping into the street smarts and integrating them into beneficial, academic work. Graff believes that “they would
Most effectively shared as a case in point, Gerald Graff offers his own adolescent experiences and love for sports over schoolwork that developed an intellectual skill outside the area of formal education. Graff himself writes that “It was in these discussions with friends about toughness and sports, I think, and 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 views of others and enter a conversation about ideas” (267). I agree that life and your surroundings contribute to ones intellectualism by other means, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people can acquire information from one another. The essence of Graff’s argument is for schools and colleges to seize the opportunity and encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic topics of study. Graff justifies himself by stating “It is self-defeating to decline to introduce any text or subject that figures to engage students who will otherwise tune out academic work entirely”