Summary Of Blue Collar Brilliance

Mike Rose’s introduces his argument by explaining the intelligence of blue collar workers and emphasizing his belief that blue-collar jobs require certain skills and tasks acquired by experience, and should not be viewed as menial tasks held by uneducated people. He goes on to point out that there are many people that feel “intelligence is…the type of schooling a person has…[and] work requiring less school requires less intelligence,” but then goes on to explain why this belief is simply not true. Rose starts with the story of his mother, Rosie, and describes what he has observed of her intelligence throughout the years of his childhood, as he

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.

First, being employed in the blue-collar industry a person must show intuition. Rose studied the habits of the blue-collar workplace, and based on his observations came to better understand how the job requires both physical and mental capabilities of an individual. The author Mike Rose, grew up in the 1940’s, this is an example of ethos in the story. Rose observed his mother, Rosie Rose work in a local restaurant as a waitress. Rose observed his mother’s impressive ability to retain food orders while keeping track of her list of side work was a skill demonstrating her intuitive capabilities that were learned out her

Many people consider book smart the only form of intelligence, but a lot of people who attended college and obtained a degree can’t perform a basic task of changing a flat tire. So does that make those people unintelligent? Mike Rose explains in “Blue Collar Brilliance” and Gerald Graff explains in “Hidden Intellectualism” that there are many different forms of intelligence. In Rose’s article, he explains how he observed his mother along with other family members work blue-collar jobs. He explains how everyone involved with blue collared work develops a sense of intelligence in many different forms. In Graff’s article, he explains how schools and colleges are doing a poor job at getting the full potential out of students. Graff thinks that if we give students things they like to read then they will progress to more scholarly readings. Both authors describe how society doesn’t value all types of intellectualism. Rose explains how people are stereotyping blue-collared jobs and not appreciating them. Graff explains how schools and colleges aren’t fostering intellectualism because they don’t take interests into account.

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

Writer, Mike Rose, in his rhetorical essay, “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” voices his familiarities with family members that labored blue-collar jobs as well as a few of his occurrences as a student. Persuading his audience, Rose judges that blue-collar jobs require intelligence and that intelligence should not be dignified by the amount of schooling that one has received. Mike Rose not only analyzes his mother, a waitress, but nonetheless of his uncle, who started a job working on the assembly line at General Motors and accomplished enough to become a supervisor. Comparing the lives of his family and the author’s experience in receiving a higher education, Rose describes his experience in observing

As Mike even began to study those who worked around the same level as that of his family, he began to piece together his belief that those of the “blue-collar” work force did have their own intelligence from “waitressing and hair styling to plumbing and welding.” (Rose 396) He noticed more and more of them portraying their own intelligence through their work. He says we “[separate] the body from the mind” instead of having them work together. (Rose 397) It was

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.

Academic work should not define intelligence nor should a job define ability; a person, regardless of grades, degrees, or job title, is an intellect. Together, Gerald Graff, a coauthor of They Say I say, professor, and former anti-intellect, author of "Hidden Intellectualism," and Mike Rose, professor, author, and in depth thinker, author of "Blue-Collar Brilliance," share two different perspectives on what an intellect truly is. Yet, both writings hold meaningful points and experiences to prove who qualifies to be an intellect. Society continuously focuses on what leads to a successful and rounded life: go to school, graduate, go back to school, get a degree, and then a job. It is believed that these high expectations of higher academics enables one to be more successful is correct; however, it is not. It is a person’s individual goals that give them the success they wish to have whether that be education, volunteering, or donating. Also, street smarts is not to be overlooked; a person with common sense can know more than a Doctor. Typically, a person can have either common sense or intelligence, not both. Street smarts is, without a doubt, a superior quality to possess as it encompasses more in life than just a degree does. For example, it is more appropriate to know how to cross a street properly in life than know how to perform a craniotomy. Furthermore, one does not gain knowledge and life lessons through school alone, but through experience,

In the article, “What Is College For? (Part 2)” written by Gary Gutting we see a description of his ideal vision to improve education and the intellectual culture of our citizens. Mr. Gutting emphasizes that preparing students for employment should be the job of the elementary, middle and high school rather than college. He argues that higher education is basically unnecessary for the practice of many professions.

In the article, Rose use many emotional personal examples to help the reader understand the amount of hard work and intelligence a blue collar job requires. Rose creates a personal connection with the reader by describing his first-hand experience of growing up watching his mother put her heart and soul into being a waitress in a restaurant. Rose says, “She described the way she memorized who ordered what, how long each dish is supposed to take to prepare, and how she became a pro at meeting the emotional needs of her customers and colleagues alike.” From the quote in the article the reader understand that Roses mother was required to have a high level of intelligence in order to meet the needs of her customers and colleagues alike in order to do her job proficiently. Rose uses emotion in this quote to make the reader relate to his mother and understand that she was a hard worker and did everything in her power to do whatever it took in order to hopefully receive a tip that would be used to support her family. Rose also says, “I couldn’t have put it in words when I was growing up, but what I observed in my mother’s restaurant defined the world of adults, a place where competence was synonymous with physical work”. Rose uses in this quote to relate that his mother’s job

Throughout America, the educational infrastructure continues to under-prepare students for future positions that require highly trained individuals to complete necessary tasks. In Daniel Bruno's “Entitlement Education”, he states, “It is not that his boss puts her foot down; instead, the job does. Our student finds himself not well prepared for it. He gets cheated because he is disadvantaged at his job---a job that he paid money to learn how to do” (252). Bruno also discusses in the essay on how motivated students are not fully prepared because the educational institute is attempting to cater to the un-driven ones. What Bruno covers in “Entitlement Education” is the staggering truth behind America's educational system. There are astonishing amounts of people at jobs who simply cannot perform their jobs to the necessary specifications. Its not necessarily that the

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

Over many centuries, society tends to frame the obscene differences to antagonize and alienate each other whether it's about a political or religious view, social reasons, or financial situations. In “Blue Collar Brilliance”, Mike Rose provides an invigorating story to persuade his audience to understand that having a blue collar job compared to a white-collar job does not determine how smart someone is. Rose uses anecdotes, rhetorical question, and logos to show that blue-collar workers learn just as much without a formal education.

In the article, “Blue-Collar Boomers Take Work Ethic to College” from Writing Now, author Libby Sander talks about workers in the baby boomer generation that are attending college to get new skills for the new jobs they hope to land. Sander says that middle aged people coming back to college is becoming more common as they become unable to do physical demanding jobs but are too young to retire (Sander 642).