Summary Of Some Lessons From The Assembly Line By Andrew Braaksma

"After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have become brutally clear. When I'm back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy re-writes seems like a cop-out after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound trite now ring

The audience intended for this essay was for the residence of The United States. Adam Davidson raises awareness on issues regarding machines taking over the workforce. Davidson also explains how uneducated individuals will have a tougher time finding job opportunities with a satisfactory salary compared to individuals who furthered their education after high-school. The essay was written as a story, in chronological order, about a girl named Madelyn Parlier. She was a great student in high school, but poor decisions lead to her not being able to further her education. Madelyn had to settle to work in a factory making significantly less than her potential.

In the short essay "Some Lessons from the Assembly Line," author Andrew Braaksma explains how important it is to attend college. He writes the essay trying to inform young adults that they should continue their education after high school. Braaksma talks about his summer job working in a factory and how different the experience is. The author shares the difference between a blue-collar and white-collar job, how people don’t understand how a blue-collar be there one day and gone the next and how blue-collar jobs are manual labor with minimal pay.

At the beginning of the fall semester 1998, my boss, and I exchanged educational views concerning the economical advantages linked to a college degree. He suggested that I seek out a college education – same thing my husband recommended (in the previous chapter).

The author goes over how when in college any thing before noon is just horrible. Then addresses how his days in the factory are early and long. "For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o'clock each morning, where rows of hulking, spark-showering machines have replaced the lush campus and cavernous lecture halls of college life, is torture." (Braaksma 1) With school you don't have to worry about class starting at 6 am and running tell 6 pm with very little breaks in-between. I agree fully with this most students classes start at 8 am and are usually over by 4 pm. additionally most students can just miss a class with out any real consequences as long as they get their homework from some one else. Nevertheless in school if you mess up on an assignment most teachers will let you redo it with little impact to you. Subsequently you do that same thing in a factory you might be out of a

Andrew Braaksma wrote in his award-winning essay, “Some Lessons from the Assembly Line” about the life lessons he learned about continuing his education, while sweating away his summers away as a blue-collar factory worker. There he learned the importance of taking his education seriously plus with the constant worries of losing his job because of a relocation program to another country, just so the company can save money. The factory life showed him what his life might have been like if he had never gone to college in the first place. "In Lessons from the Assembly line, Braaksma proves that college students should take school seriously by studying hard, and not

The author gives us an insight into how his "time is spent stamping, cutting, welding, moving or assembling parts" when he is working in the factories. (Braaksma, 2005). He then goes on to explain how he must wake up early and work long hours for a paycheck that seems not to be near enough what was worked for. Braaksma also touches on how some factory jobs may not be a secure place to work because of downsizing or relocating to another country. The fear of not knowing when a factory working might lose his or her job is terrifying.

The prompt “Some Lessons From The Assembly Line” is about the values of education, but even more importantly how some come to value it more than others. Author, Andrew Braaksma, introduces the idea that sometimes it is the life choices and responsibilities that one has to endure is what makes one value the education more than one who does not know what an alternative life may be like.

Along with the comeback of school we need to “Pity our poor teachers who spend every September reprogramming children to do their homework, spending hours on remedial lessons and waiting until overtired children readjust to regular bedtimes” says McFeatters. She made me realize that schooling lacks over the summer and forgets to stick for the arrival of school. As stated, teenage workers’ jobs have become taken by those whom are unsuccessful adults trying to make a living. Being a teenager, I plan on trying to get a job, but my education is also in my hands of retaining throughout a summer of jobs and even summer school to keep up with my schooling to get into more colleges with an overloaded class agenda. Year-round school would keep up with my education, and there would be more breaks to find jobs here and there to keep up with extra curricular, or even my car.

In the article "Some Lessons From the Assembly Line", by Andrew Braaksma, tells the story of the author during his time in college while working within an automotive plant in southwest Michigan, and the lifelong lessons in which he learned from his experience and coworkers. In this article, the author addresses his time attending college, majoring in French literature, while working back in his hometown over the summer, working a job that is best described as "torture." Some Lessons From the Assembly Line's theme of learning from the experiences in life to help teach the reader the lessons that everyone has to come to terms with at some point because most students in college always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge,

In explaining the value of the opportunity to work in the factory he writes, "My lessons about education are learned at the expense of those who weren't fortunate enough to receive one" (Braaksma, 2005). This passage carries an almost sentimental tone, while also conveying the guilt he feels for his opportunity, that is accomplished through his use of “expense” and “fortunate enough.” He is assigning a value to the lessons that he has learned from his co-workers and his word choice conveys that he recognized that he has not paid that expense, but instead it is paid by those who have not had his good fortune with regards to higher education. When describing the physical environment, he uses stark and sterile words to mirror the factory while opting for more pastoral words to describe his campus. These strong and colorful words add emotion to otherwise inanimate subjects. His word choice also ensures that the article does not belittle those without an education, but instead serves as motivation for those who want to pursue a degree. Had he selected words that tended towards condescending or conveyed that he was mocking his co-workers for their lack of a formal education the impact of the piece would have been immediately decreased. His potential audience, readers who do not have a higher education but are interested in pursuing one, would immediately be on the defensive and potentially insulted. Instead, by conveying respect and appreciation, he invites readers to a safe place where he is not judging those without a college degree but instead expressing profound appreciation for their struggles and highlighting the alternative that a degree can

Please imagine being a college student, then imagine working away most of your summer's since high school on the factory floor. This job may seem monotonous or at times even feel voyeuristic, working day in and day out, for long hours and low pay with the knowledge that you get to go back to school in the fall, but it ends up teaching you to appreciate your life as a college student (Braaksma 17). That is exactly what Andrew Braaksma wrote about when he wrote, "Some Lessons from the Assembly Line" (Braaksma 17).

In the past, America thrived off of manual labor. However, in today’s employment market in America technology drives our world. To meet this demand men have to leave the mindset of yesterday’s work ethic and pursue higher education in order to be successful in the jobs of America today. The jobs in America have shifted; demanding a higher education to force people to advance with technology. Men used to make a living with working with their hands and doing back breaking work, however, these

In The NPR broadcast of “Why High School Students Need More Than College Prep”, Claudio Sanchez reveals how most students leave high school without any “soft skills” to help them obtain jobs in the workforce. Sanchez shows how Willamette High School prides itself on providing classes on what most would call trade school material. The school explains how employers expect students to already have these “soft skill” like “punctuality, customer service, managing people, and teamwork”. Willamette is involved with DECA which is an organization that provides students with real-world experiences. Students that participate have a better understanding of if college is the right place for them to be or if they would rather run the family business like

On a similar note, this self proclaimed post-industrial age has brought one major change, the need for specialized education. The ability for a man or women to support themselves and their family is now unattainable in developed and industrialized countries with only muscle jerks and repetition, with robotics and cheap labor making nearly anyone in those industries replaceable, and therefore, poorly paid in comparison to labor. As the value of education became clear, children would no longer be forced to work for the majority of the day in dangerous and dilapidated coal mines, but instead spend twelve years being prepared for future careers in areas that would arguably, be much more beneficial. The career opportunities of a young adult rose from the family farm or the factory in the middle of town to organizations all around the world. As a result of this, the American dream of being able to be whatever you wanted rose rose from the cynicism of the industrial