Intelligence is everywhere!

Intellectualism is defined as exercise or application of the intellect. This definition allows room for one to see that intellectualism isn’t something that is meant to have restrictions. The mind is at work anytime one is applying themselves to a higher understanding. Be it catching up on world culture, studying literature, or even soaking up the latest edition of Sports Illustrated, all of these are a form of learning and challenging one’s intelligence. It appears that we have manually confined brainpower and turned it into something more difficult and misunderstood than it actually should be.
For far too long intellectualism has been stereotyped. The world views someone with “street smarts”, who may not have an appealing amount of “book smarts”, as dim-witted. An observation such as this is unfair and degrading to most people. This statement is unfair because it is a completely false assertion; just because a student may not be highly educated on famous documents from Shakespeare or others, does not make that person dumb. Today, educators frown upon those who are not up to date on their literacy or other key subjects. Here is where I agree with Gerald Graff, a professor of English and education at the University of Illinois, after reading his essay. In his writing he says, “…schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (142)
Who ever made “street smarts” bad? After all, street smarts are in fact more helpful to the modern, day by day process we go through, as opposed to being brainy on topics such as Chaucer and his Canterberry Tales. Now, by no means am I discriminating against the subjects we are taught. I think it is very important for one to be well-informed on English literature. However, I personally believe students should have the opportunity to work their way into deeper topics instead of being tossed out into a pool of subjects that do not peak their interest. This issue seems to be the leading factor in students being classified as unintelligent.
Graff admits in his piece that as a high school student he was constantly engaged in sports, and that if he ever did read, it was most always a sports magazine or an autobiography of sports stars. A student whose focus is not where the teaching is usually does poorly in school. Which leads one to wonder, who is to blame, the students for not applying themselves, or the instructors for not using methods that would slowly work into more essential studies and lead to a higher intelligence? Both are very reasonable theories. However, I agree with Graff and think that maybe the schools and colleges should challenge our street smarts and let that feed into higher academic knowledge.
Of course it is not too hard for a student to force him or herself into a memorized knowledge of a subject just to receive a good grade. However, this is not what it should boil down to. Learning should be fun and exciting, but it is not because there is so much more interest going into the criteria rather than the concern of keeping the learning community entertained by their studies. Students should have the opportunity to enjoy the subject they are
studying. It is not the material that creates the wisdom; it is the interest of focus that fuels the motivation for learning more.
Whoever the blame falls on, whatever the outcome may one day be, I stand firm in saying that it is okay for the system to ease up, chill out, and have fun with teaching. Inviting enjoyment into lessons will positively filter to other disturbed areas of the educational system. Teachers would be happier with their jobs and more open to schedule instead of being stuck in boring routines, students would have better grades, learn more, and be more attentive to studies and overall, the order of education would have a better stance if we tried something new.
Forever we have been stuck in this routine of “requirements” to beat brains into humans. I think it is time to throw tradition out the window and open up to a new way of teaching. Let students enjoy learning so that they may cherish the one thing that can never be taken away, their education.

Invisible Children

On Wednesday night a couple of my friends and I enjoyed some awesome music and a good message at Mem gym. A few bands were there and I absolutely loved their music. The night was set aside to help us everyday people living in a place were we are spoiled and blessed beyond measures see another side of the world that needs our help. The message relayed to the audience that night was very inspiring to reach out to children across this world who struggle with pain, health, and sadly the ease of getting abducted and kidnapped. Along with the slideshows and message there were three bands there. The first, Ocean is a Theory, were my absolute favorite. They were a christian band, i think.. and not only was their music phenominal but the hype they brought with them called for an excellent performance. I was extremely excited about see Starlume, but when they did play I wasn't as impressed by their music as Ocean is a Theory. Don't get me wrong, their music was also very good but i think because they followed such an excellent performance, it was harder to enjoy. Anyways, overall it was a great night, with an even better message!!

The Features

Last night my friends and I were one of a few groups that hung out at the annual Tennessee Tech concert. Waiting for The Features to perform, we were introduced to a couple other bands. The first one I wasn't crazy about, the second one I think I might like. However I couldn't hear it well enough to decide!! Anyhow, when The Features did perform they were really good! I liked their music, style, the way they played together, it was great! To watch a band play with so much energy but with so much harmony is remarkable. I really enjoyed last night's show and I know my friends and a lot of others who participated did as well. I'll be listening to that band more often.

Anti-Essay Reader Response

After reading and watching the assigned videos and readings I have no idea what i'll do for my project! Public entertainment/art is really cool but it could easily be hard for one to do well. It looks as if it takes a lot of thought, prepartation and work. The performer never knows whether or not they are as effective as they hope to be. My favorite of the videos that were required to watch was the one titled Street Performance.
I like seeing performances like this sometimes simply because they are entertaining and the performers of the art are excited and you can see that they enjoy the very thing they are doing. However, this goes back to me saying one never knows how effective the performance may be. Sometimes a leader in the production of art is to much or to little and can be annoying or boring. By reading the defined idea and watching videos of this art shows me that it is important to realize how difficult this can be. And just as one of the guys said in the Street Performance video, "The job is to make the difficult look easy, and the easy look beautiful." That's hard!!