In the essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose, he ponders the meaning of these blue collar jobs, how he views them, as well as how they are viewed by society. Rose recalls memories from his childhood, observing his mother, a waitress, call out abbreviations while hustling around the restaurant to fulfill her duties. In addition at a young age he could recognize that she had a seemingly endless list of responsibilities, along with the requirement of pleasant customer service. By the end of her shift Rose recalls his mother was always intensely fatigued. Developing into a man, he further contemplated what he recalls observing as a young child, what he now recognizes as “the world of adults”. In greater detail he states “A place where competence was synonymous with physical work.” Rose shares that as he matured, he obtained further information regarding the working habits of such “blue collar” workers. Now he recognizes that while seemingly insignificant to many, this fashion of work is very taxing, not only mentally, but physically as well. Rose suggests, though typically, various physical jobs don't require high literacy levels, mental function and an ability to focus and operate in difficult situations are required. To his understanding, this is something regularly slighted. His judgement is notably strong, that everyday work is important to our society as a whole. His perception of this is that those who work in this field should not be devalued because of
In past years, when people was talking about higher education, they had no hesitation to mention university immediately. When others were mentioning that college also belonged to higher education, sometimes they reacted with a wry smile, and shook their heads. Yes, even if it is for today, university gets the higher appraisal than college, and even many people think ‘‘college as America used to understand it is coming to an end.’’ As parents, they prefer their children to study in university instead of college, no matter how high of tuition the university it is. They ignore the value of college. Although sometimes college is viewed as critical by other people, we still can find its value, and how it is really beneficial for our lives, even if we don’t pursue a degree.
Due to the shift in the structure of the Australian workforce over the last century, the class structure of the contemporary society has become more complicated than its traditional model. There is no longer a clear distinction between the middle and the working class (as cited in van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 227). In the past, people who work in intellectual occupation had higher income and status, where they received more social honour than people who had manual skills. Nowadays, many people whose job involves manual labour have a higher income than those in intellectual occupation (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 227). For example, some small business owners are self-employed where they are required to provide manual labour. Since they are both the capitalist and the worker of their own, they can avoid being exploited and have full access to the wealth they produce. Their income and status are therefore high, even though they involve in manual labour.
He observed that each blue collar occupation requires different kinds of intelligence and skills in addition to quick decision making and large quantities of mental capacity in order to fulfill each person’s duty. Rose argues that in doing so, the worker becomes tuned to solving problems “that both enhances knowledge and informs perception” (280). While it may not seem apparent, blue collar workers actually use a wide range of skills that are difficult to find in other occupations, specifically in white collar
The story “Blue-Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose, was originally published in the American Scholar, in 2009. Rose is an American education scholar and was born in 1944. Rose has written several articles on literacy matters. He studied the struggle of the working-class America. Throughout the article, Rose used personal stories to persuade the reader blue-collar workers are very intelligent despite having a formal education. Rose’s agenda could be compared to that of Aristotle regarding their similar ideas on persuasion. Aristotle, was a well-known Greek philosopher, implemented three key terms: ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade his audience. Much like Aristotle, the author of Blue-Collar Brilliance, portrays the importance of his mother and uncle’s jobs by them showing intuition, intelligence, and multitasking thus demonstrating ethos, pathos, and logos.
In “Blue Collar Brilliance” Mike Rose starts of by telling us two stories, one about his mother and the other about his uncle Joe. They worked what people would call blue collar jobs; everybody usually perceives blue collar jobs as grunt work which doesn’t take much intelligence to work. However Rose disagrees with that notion; Rose describes to us in detail how his moms’ intellect in the restaurant work field kept the place calm, efficient and balanced. He also told us a story of how his uncle Joe worked up the ranks of the auto industry after dropping out of school in the ninth grade. One of Rose’s main points in “Blue Collar Brilliance” is that intelligence isn’t always measured with grades and tests and, that blue collar jobs take just
In the article “Blue-Collar Brilliance”, Mike Rose’s main focus was to convey that there are forms of intelligence than just being intellectual. Rose, suggest that a broader perspective of education allow us to expand our understanding of what intelligence is. Rose explains what our culture views as intelligence: “Our cultural iconography promotes the muscled arm; sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no brightness behind the eye, no image that links hand and brain” (Rose). In making this comment, Rose urges us to take a step back and to look society’s perception of blue-collar work as not as demanding or requiring as much brain powering as white-collar work. Often people do not realize that a person who has a blue-collar job is just as
There are many different types of jobs in the world; some of which people feel are better than others. Factors like the amount of money and amount of education affect the stereotypical perception about certain jobs. There are two different types of work, blue-collar and white-collar. Blue-collar jobs are seen as the “working class”. The “Working class” refers to low-wage workers that are void of a college education, who struggle to get by economically. It is also perceived that the “Working class” is lazy, unproductive failures who have limited upward mobility, or relics of earlier era of industrialization. It’s important that people realize the amount of skill level it takes to do different types of jobs, and although pay may not reflect the effort or the soft and technical skills needed, or physicality that is respective for those jobs; these jobs should be viewed respectfully. Jobs like cashiers and waitressing have a bad reputation, but they take a certain skill level that people have to develop just like any other white-collar job. People skills, public speaking, ability to sell items on the menu, multi-tasking, and so much more are necessary to be a success in this type of career choice or job. Matthew Crawford talks about this in his book, along with Mike Rose, on how there is a lack of appreciation and respect for the skill set it takes to do blue collar jobs, and how the stereotypically stigma couldn’t be further than the
In the article, "Blue Collar Brilliance" Mark Rose shows his thought that hands on employments shouldn't be seen as foolish. Society characterizes knowledge in view of grades and IQ tests, however numbers doesn't characterize the workers in the fields. Rose points out that his mom's employment as a waitress and his uncle's occupation in the paint-and-body office are two individuals with a less education is skillful in their job by gaining hand-on experience and knowledge.
Rose continues to bring other blue-collar job that requires similar ability and to explain we only try to measure intelligence solely on grades in school and their intelligence at this level. However, he argues that blue-collar intelligence goes far from what we usually can perceive. He ends his argument we the following statement: “If we believe everyday work to be mindless, then that will affect the work we create in the future. When we devalue the full range of everyday cognition, we offer limited educational opportunities and fail to make fresh and meaningful instructional connections among disparate kinds of skill and knowledge. If we think that the whole categories of people—identified by class or occupation---are not that bright, then we reinforce social separations and cripple our ability to talk across cultural divides” (Rose, 2015, p283). In my view, Rose made a very good argument about how Blue-Collar workers are labelled in many cases as intelligence, but he ends this argument by basically said that those who may can to that conclusion are not that smart. If you think about everything, that Rose describes in this essay
Have you ever looked down upon a Blue-collar worker? Well, no need to anymore. Author Mike Rose, a professor at UCLA, wrote "Blue-Collar Brilliance," published in a reputable magazine in 2009 in the American Scholar. Rose argues that Blue-Collar workers are often overlooked. Additionally, Rose brings an overwhelming measure of thankfulness and support as this article assertively endeavored to persuade white-collar workers who before it demonstrated almost no appreciation for blue collar workers. He claims that in effect, intelligence cannot be determined only by the knowledge we collect in school but also through how we learn skills in our daily lives. Rose effectively argues his claim by using pathos, ethos, and logos through personal stories, and comprehensive counterarguments.
Blue Collar workers as the fundamental that makes up America. One such man, author Mike Rose a professor at UCLA, who wrote "Blue-Collar Brilliance," published in a reputable magazine in 2009 in the American Scholar, what Rose argues, is that blue-collar workers often overlooked. In effect, that the establishment of where you work acts as an institution of learning and those without a formal education have valuable types of "brilliance." Rose argues his claim by using pathos, logos through personal stories, credentials, and comprehensive counterarguments.
In the U.S society, there is a distinguishment between the different classification of employment. Those categories of employment are either classified as “blue-collar” or “white-collar”. Blue-collar jobs are referred to the line of employment that require manual labor such as factory workers and truck drivers, as for the white-collar jobs require high skills and higher education such as doctors and lawyers (Chambliss and Eglitis 159). Although, the professions are labeled as blue or white collar through its needs, the different labels indicates one’s position in the ranks. Each rank is often associated with characteristic that either make them upper class or lower class. Furthermore, “people’s life experience and opportunities are powerfully influenced by how their social category is ranked”(Chambliss and Eglitis 159). Therefore, one’s lifestyle depends on which category they fall into within the rank. That being the case, journalist Alfred Lubrano wrote the book, Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams, which describes the cultural conflict experienced by white-collar professionals that grew up in blue-collar homes. It tells readers how the white-collar professionals found it difficult to apply to their blue-collar families, due to the fact, that they often held values and engaged in behaviors that apply to the upper-class. As in order to fit in within the groups, they would have to adapt to the upper class life. So the transition from a blue-collar life to a
There is a Chinese proverb that says, “ Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those doing it.” Steve Olson wrote an essay that talks about that very principle. He titled his essay “Year of the Blue-Collar Guys”. It is about the hard working blue collar guys (BCGs) living in America, but what was his purpose in writing about BCGs? What kind of modes of persuasion does he use to persuade his audience to his way of thinking? How does he respond to the opposing side of his argument, and what kind of logical fallacies does he use?
In my observation mentally with Mr. Roses essay on blue collar brilliance, Mr Rose tries to tell the reader on the different levelsof work there is for high educated people opposed to the non educated. Furthermore he tries express through his family experiences in the work environment how a person with a manual labor is not so different than a person with a high level of education, they are equal in job to job views but not in society.
The reasoning to label it trade careers and not blue-collar careers is mainly due to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics declaring “white collar and blue collar series are no longer useful categories and will be discontinued in 2007” in compiling its Employment Cost Index data" (BLS). However, trade careers have historically been known as blue-collar careers, a name originating “from the blue uniforms traditionally worn … performing manual labor, in contrast to the white button-down shirts worn … in professional occupations”, like in an office (Blue Collar and White Collar). However, “these uniforms have become less prevalent with time” (Blue Collar and White Collar) and have instead become a symbol of careers classification. It is important to realize that blue-collar careers can range from being “unskilled, low-skilled, or highly skilled, ranging from relatively simple assembly-line manufacturing to the use of computerized equipment by automobile mechanics" (Blue Collar and White Collar). In other words, a trade career cannot be done by anyone, and requires a certain skill. Another important aspect of trade careers is how they can be unpleasant or unstable. The unpleasantness can arise from the “the risk associated” with the job, as seen in careers relating “construction, fire fighting, and law enforcement”, and they can also be unstable due to having “periods of low job security" (Blue Collar and White Collar). This low job security can root from technological growth, which challenges trade careers. Historically, blue-collar careers have morphed with the technology of the times: “agricultural technology birthed the farming industry” (Thompson), and the advent of “electricity and internal combustion engines fueled the transition from a mostly agrarian society to a highly industrialized nation” (Blue Collar and Whole Collar). Each era resulted in blue-collar careers disappearing,