"Hidden Intellectualism"

In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff argues that schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they only focus on what they believe to be “intellectual” subjects, dismissing subjects they deem “non-intellectual.” These include subjects such as cars, clothing, sports and TV. The reason Graff believes this, is the fact that students must get interested in education themselves; it cannot be forced onto them. So if these so-called “non-intellectual” subjects were welcomed into the classroom, instead of brushed aside, there would be a lot of students who would have much more incentive to participate, which in turn would have a grass-roots effect. By this I refer to his quote that, “It’s a good bet that if students get hooked on reading and writing by doing term papers on Source, they will eventually get to [John Stuart Mill’s] On Liberty.”
Yet, this is not to further the gap between so-called academic and non-academic subjects. As Graff makes clear, by using his own childhood as an example, the subject’s schools and colleges deem non-academic often not only equal the academic subjects, but can even surpass them. When he was a child in the 1950’s, he read all the sport’s magazines instead of Plato and Shakespeare. Then he and his friends, the "hoods," would have arguments, discussions, debates etc. on everything to do with sports. It was from these interactions that Graff learned "how to make an argument, weigh different kinds of evidence, move between particulars and generalizations, summarize the views of others, and enter a conversation with others." Meanwhile, school was much more solitary, isolating and to Graff even "unreal." In a way, the curriculum in the classroom was only the statistical part of his sports education, lacking the communal aspects, the fun, and the inner laying truth.
Graff's point does make sense when the purpose of education is examined closely. After all, a school's job is not to turn out a group of students who all think the same and have the same interests. Not everyone likes Plato, Shakespeare and Aristotle. The objective of a school is to involve all of their students, and in order to do this the kids need to be interested in the subject. So instead of alienating kids from education by only forcing onto them subjects that they have zero interest in, schools and colleges need to embrace these "non-intellectual" and "non-academic" subjects into the classroom. The result would be more kids included in classroom discussions and with a better attitude and outlook towards education.