Do I really consider the judges on America’s Next Top Model to have some sort of “hidden intellectualism” because of their knowledge concerning how to be a model? No, I definitely do not. Contrary to Graff’s belief that so called “street smarts” should be regarded as an “intelligence” that could be applied to “academic work, I believe that the knowledge of the social world is one thing, and the knowledge of the academic world is another (page 142).
In his essay “Hidden Intellectualism” Graff stresses that familiarity with topics such as fashion, cars, sports, video games, and television could be used in the academic world to entice students to dig deeper into more thorough topics such as “Shakespeare” (page 143). As a student, I don’t agree; I attend school to learn about the academic subjects that I can’t find in my teen magazines. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, the world of style and the industry of modeling has no intellectual dimension to it. These and other “street smarts”, as Graff calls them, should remain outside of the classroom in the less complex social realm (page 142). Although I do agree that a paper on fashion would be not only entertaining, but also easy since I would not necessarily mind writing it, I do not think that writing such a paper would really benefit me. I love going to school, even though waking up for classes may be a bit brutal on some mornings, I love learning and that is what drives me to get to class everyday day. If I knew that in English class our assignment would be to analyze the art of dating I, personally, would be a bit annoyed. I have a goal to read all of the classics and I hope that English classes continue to keep Orwell, Shakespeare, and Emerson on their syllabi.
To conclude, although the knowledge the social world, at times, seems to force-feed us can be used in an academic setting, I believe that it should remain something to merely fill a conversation with until a more intellectual topic arises. The academic world has enough subjects of its own to fully educate students; there is no need to try to add “street smarts” into the mix (142). “Hidden Intellectualism” presents ideas that could incorporate knowledge found in the social world with the intellectualism of the academic world, but I don’t see the need to get them tangled. What would an English class be without the authors who created their own categories of literature? Without analyzing a true novel? Personally, it wouldn’t be an English class to me and for this reason I don’t believe nonacademic topics like fashion or sports should be incorporated into classroom learning.
