Although education has become readily available to millions of people in the modern world, many people are still forced to work blue-collar jobs because of their circumstances. While blue-collar jobs may be viewed in society as a “low intelligence”, unskilled labor, it is my belief that such careers require their own form of knowledge and offer an experience that cannot be obtained working white-collar careers. Additionally, those who are capable of working blue-collar jobs may have an easy time finding other careers compared to those educated because their skills are already developed whereas educated people may not have any viable work skills already developed and only retain their academic knowledge which they may or may not be able to convert into work skills. However, even though I may sound biased towards blue-collar career, I still acknowledge those who have the courage and perseverance to work towards a white-collar career path. White-collar careers are difficult and specific in their requirements, but there is just as much thought and skill to be put into blue-collar jobs. In Mike Rose’s Blue Collar Brilliance, he attempts to show the audience how a blue-collar career has its own intelligence and skill through the usage of visuals, examples, and written language.
Throughout Blue Collar Brilliance, Mike Rose details members of his family’s actions, interactions, and thought processes greatly to showcase their skills and intelligence regarding their job. For example, “Rosie took customer’s orders, pencil poised over pad, while fielding questions about the food.” (Rose 3). This quote displays how Rose’s mother, Rosie, approached customers with a “ready-to-serve” attitude as demonstrated by her pen being ready over the pad. ...
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... that blue-collar jobs had skills and intelligence of their own that could match with or quite possibly surpassed the skills and intelligence of white-collar jobs. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that formal education isn’t the only place of learning, but rather blue-collar jobs could serve as a substitute for a learning environment too, sometimes even teaching knowledge which could surpass white-collar intelligence. Additively, through Rose’s paragraph composition, a person could see and feel the amount of labor and thought that went behind each blue-collar worker’s tasks allowing the audience to understand the tediousness of a blue-collar job. As such, it is once again shown that blue-collar careers do not fall behind white-collar careers in terms of skills and intelligence because for each career there is a requirement for different skill sets and knowledge.
Being educated can help people earn their living and be more responsible. Nowadays, education level is one of the most important requirements and comparative advantage for searching a job. The people who finish higher education, they would have more opportunity. Just like the author Wes’s father, “he finally had the chance to host his own public affairs show. And he’d hired a new writing assistant. Her name was Joy.”(12) After graduate from Bard College, his father gained more opportunities to realize his dream, being on television. Studying in college, we can learn the professional skill and know more about the
When analyzing the article “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” written by Mike Rose, and the article “Shop Class as Soulcraft,” by Matthew B. Crawford, you can see several differences in the strategies they use. Rose’s text was an educational article about the intelligence gained through manual labor trades. Roses intended audience is the well educated, professional class, as well as educators, and individuals working in white collar jobs. His purpose is to prove that not all blue-collar workers need an education to succeed and to bust the stereotype that blue-collar individuals can gain the essential skills and education from their jobs. Crawford also based his article around blue-collar work, he mainly focuses on the values the craftsman, being a craftsman
What if one day it got turned upside down where your employees become your teacher. Bosch highlights that white-collar workers are useless in a topsy-turvy world, where as blue-collar workers have skills to survive and they become the top of the new social order. “skills in auto maintenance, farming, plumbing, and electrical work- not to mention marksmanship- land blue collar folks at the top”norton field guild to writing with readings and handbook 653. This gives the outlook that blue-collar workers are strong and resourceful. Bosch portrays the class of zombies as a terrifying threat.
In the essays, Two Year Are Better than Four by Liz Addison, and Blue Collar Brilliance by Mike Rose respectively, take two different approaches to learning. Addison firmly believes in the traditional method by advocating community college is the better choice for students to experience higher education. Addison also asserts community colleges offer the same level of education compared to four universities. She also emphasized in her writing the value of the experience is much more personal due to the smaller classes in community college. On the other hand, Mike Rose observes that higher education does not define a person’s intelligence. Rose believes that society plays a big part in the judgmental view towards people without degrees. Yet the same society fail to recognize that blue collar jobs such as plumbers and waitresses require specific kinds of intelligence just like Rose’s mother Rosie, whom he described as an example of blue collar brilliance. Even though Addison and Rose take
In the United States, the history of Career and Technical Education evolved within four major periods. First, the Awakening period which began in 1776-1826, when the right to a free public education was expressed. During this era, educational opportunities in labor and industrial education were being demanded. The rising working class began to press for an education that were more appropriate for their labor and industry’s needs (Awakening 1776-1826, 1976). Even Benjamin Franklin who represented the Awakening middle class was on board with the rise of technical and vocational education which were taught primarily by private masters or contracted apprenticeships (Cohen, 1976).
Ungar, S. J. (2010). The new liberal arts. In G. Graff, C. Birkenstein, & R. Durst (Eds.). “They say, I say”: The moves that matter in academic writing with readings. (2nd ed.). (pp. 190-197). New York: W. W. Norton. This article looks to prove that liberal arts education is just as valuable as “career education” because contrary to general belief, career education doesn’t guarantee high-paying jobs after they graduate.
In “ Blue Collar Brilliance” Mike Rose argues that intelligences can’t be measured by the education we received in school but how we learn them in our everyday lives. He talks about his life growing up and watching his mother waitressing at a restaurant. He described her orders perfectly by who got what, how long each dish takes to make, and how she could read her customers. He also talks about his uncles working at the General Motors factory and showed the amount of intelligence that was need to work at the factory. Rose goes on talking about the different types of blue-collar and how he came up with the idea that a person has skills that takes a lot of mind power to achieve.
In recent years people in America have become curious about white-collar criminals and white-collar crimes. Notorious instances of white-collar cases have peaked interest in the subject as well. The idea of white-collar developed in criminological changed over time. A type of white-collar crime called corporate crime has been found in the United States for years. The government has created systems where they can control white-collar and corporate crime. There are reforms that could effectively address white-collar crimes. Organized crime is usually merged with the Mafia, and other illegal groups, when heard by Americans. Organized crime and white-collar crime differ in the way they are committed and the people who commit these crimes.
In the story he tells us how he and his father would sit and wait at the restaurant his mother worked at. How is mother would whirl around the restaurant “pencil poised over pad, while fielding questions about the food” (9) calculating each step she took. “She walked full tilt through the room with plates stretching up her left arm and two cups of coffee somehow cradled in her right hand. She stood at a table or booth and removed a plate for this person, another for that person, then another, remembering who had the hamburger, who had the fried shrimp, almost always getting it right.” (10) He described his mother’s calculated steps and how she had to modify her behavior for the needs and wants of each guest and table.
Blue Collar workers today are looked down upon by most of society. People think that if you have a blue collar job you aren’t smart and not successful. But in my opinion, blue collar workers are the backbone of our society, and deserve the same amount of respect as white collar workers. “Blue Collar Brilliance by Mike Rose” explains how blue collar workers are very smart and use a lot of brainpower to get their jobs done. Both his Uncle and mother were blue collar workers and that’s where he got his inspiration to stand up for blue collar workers around the world. He gives us examples of how his own family members were blue collar workers and how they were smart and how they excelled at their jobs. He uses his own experiences to show us that blue collar workers are in fact smart, able to adapt to many different situations, and deserve respect.
Today, worldwide, there are several thousands of crimes being committed. Some don’t necessarily require a lethal weapon but are associated with various types of sophisticated fraud, this also known as a white-collar crime. These crimes involve a few different methods that take place within a business setting. While ethical business practices add money to the bottom line, unethical practices are ultimately leading to business failure and impacting the U.S. financially.
“Intelligence is closely associated with formal education- the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long- and most people seem to move comfortably from the notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Rose 276). My Dad has worked blue collar jobs his entire life. Security guard, lawn service, woodworker, carpenter, plus anything else that involves his hands. He didn’t have any schooling past his high school diploma. But he’s always told me, “Yeah, I wish I went to college, but I’m sure as hell glad I was taught and forced to learn the skills I have now. Like doing things on my own and working with my hands, my work ethic, and my ability to absorb as many things as I could to get the job done.” Blue collar jobs can never be outsourced. There will always be a need for plumbers, electricians, machine operators, carpenters and many, many more
Rose Mary is a selfish woman and decides not to go to school some mornings because she does not feel up to it. Jeannette takes the initiative in making sure that her mother is prepared for school each morning because she knows how much her family needs money. Even though Rose Mary starts to go to school every day, she does not do her job properly and thus the family suffers financially again. When Maureen’s birthday approaches, Jeannette takes it upon herself to find a gift for her because she does not think their parents will be able to provide her with one. Jeannette says, “at times I felt like I was failing Maureen, like I wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d protect her - the promise I’d made to her when I held her on the way home from the hospital after she’d been born. I couldn’t get her what she needed most- hot
The report of Robert Reich: “Why the Rich are getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer,” is an eye opener and a warning for society regarding unemployment that it will be facing and is currently facing due to a lack of technology and education. It clearly articulates that the jobs of routine producers and in-person servers have vanished totally as modern techniques have replaced them. The author has stated that the only people whose jobs are on the rise are symbol analysts. As stated in the report, symbol analysts are the real problem solvers. Their skills are highly in demand worldwide because they are the ones who first analyze the problem and then solve it. The Hart Report, on the other hand, also states the same problem of unemployment and the global recession which has left employers focusing on employees not only with specialists’ skills but also a “broader range of skills and knowledge” (page 6-7). The Hart Report clearly reflects what the needs of contemporary employers are, but the question is whether it is the universities or the students themselves who fail to cope with the requirements of the contemporary world which is filled with technological advancement and critical thinking. The Texas Work Source has also played an important role in examining what is actually missing in today’s generation and the reasons behind such a great decline in employment. The central
The structural-functional analysis of jobs in the U.S. is governed by the workforce stratification and technology. The more educated and diverse a society is the better society’s job market is served. This social economic separation of class has been both good and bad for society. Many workers at the lower levels of employment are both pleased and displeased with many aspects of work. Though this fact also holds true with most any job at any level, pay scale often compensates for endurance of a particular job type. The security of a person’s job also is an issue that in today’s economic times forces one to be prepared for change. This is to say that even if one’s field of expertise is needed today it may not be tomorrow. This type of ever-changing job market leads many to believe that another socio-economic change may occur at any time. This change was apparent with the transition into the industrial age and again in the information age. These concerns caused stress, various health issues, a...