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.