Gerald Graff argues that real intellectuals aren't just people with broad academic understanding, they are also people with "street smarts." Graff believes that people with nonacademic interest can still be intellectuals. He states his argument in the last paragraph when he says, "schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study." Graff supports his argument by stating a personal testimony. He uses himself as an example of someone who wasn't "book smart" but had a thirst for knowledge relating to sports. Anything that had to deals with sports he read, from Sports Illustrated to Sports Magazine.
I agree with Graff to some extent. It seems to me that many hobbies or interest that are strongly pursued can easily be called an intellect in some way. Like for example musicians, many people refer to musicians as musical geniuses. Geniuses are people who have this vast amount of knowledge. They are intellectuals. Intellectuals don't have to be only in the academic sense, intellectuals are seen everyday in many different manners. The only reason where I can't fully agree with Graff is because of his idea that someone who pursues any nonacademic interest can become an intellectual. That means someone who has become an expert in multitasking or juggling will be an intellectual? I hardly think so. It all depends on the interest one taking up, but it is true that not all intellectual have to be academic.
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