Blue Collar Brilliance Essay

Some of the considerations about education have changed when we compare those considerations by looking closely at the qualifications of the blue-collar workers and students. Two writers looked at different generations, and one of them focused on the experiences of the blue-collar workers; however, the other writer looked at considerations from another perspective by paying attention to statistics. While in “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” Mike Rose claims that college is not necessary in “Are Too Many People Going to College,” Charles Murray believes college is somehow necessary; however, both Rose and Murray agree on how we value knowledge and how we measure intelligence.

Do you think someone with a higher education-level job requires more from the worker than someone that started working right from high school? Or do you think that not going to college after high school means that you just stop learning? One of Mike Rose’s main ideas in the Blue-Collar Brilliance is the question, is there really a difference between white and blue collar worker? Mike Rose is being persuasive in the text because he shows how his family went through blue collar work. I think Mike Rose is being persuasive in writing this.

“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 that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Rose). What Rose is trying to infer is that just because you are labeled blue collar: meaning you have to earn your income from manual labor, and have lack of educational knowledge, does not mean you cannot earn the knowledge in your work career. There are many opportunities to learn from your job even if you are less experienced. “...One who is so intelligent about so many things in life seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work. What doesn’t occur to us, though, is that schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street

In "Blue-Collar Brilliance" Mike Rose Shares his perspective on how education is not Intelligence. He lets us know how growing up he was around a bunch of Blue-Collar workers himself, and how intelligence is not based on the education you have but what you can Develop on your own from just being open minded. He explains to use how blue-collar jobs take a toll on both body and mind. He believes that you don't need to be taught things to develop intelligence that your intelligence comes from within. He shared the different stories of blue-collar workers life that he experience such as his mother and his uncle to help us see that even if you don't have a high education and a college degree you can still become a successful. He wants use to see that blue-collar jobs take more intelligence then what we think: it's more than just an elementary job.

For example, “Still for Joe the shop floor provided what school did not, it was like schooling he said, a place where you’re constantly learning” (Rose 277). So people shouldn’t judge someone as not being smart if they decide to choose a trade job over higher education. Someone who decides to do a trade related job like Joe in this case learned valuable job related skills and became smarter by trial and error on the shop floor. Doing a trade related job still requires extensive training and definitely makes the person just as smart as the average person with or without a degree. In addition, Joe quickly became a problem solver and improved things on the job that made the line run a lot more efficient. So people should realize that one still could learn important things while working certain jobs that don’t require a college degree and it doesn’t mean that person is not smart.

College education doesn't guarantee employment. In 2012, there was a lot of evidence suggesting the education to work link being broken. (Allen, 2011) A lot of college graduates are searching for work today. A lot of college students feel that college is a waste of money. (Berger, 2013)According to a sociologist at New York University, Richard Arum, 64% of students show improvement in critical after four years in college. They do not learn what they want to. They have to attend classes that have little or nothing to do with their major. (Allen,

A young student in today’s society has been taught about earning their college degree and further education. With this education young students have the thinking that high class and have much respect. In fact, people equally hard for earning that degree. Also, in earning this degree parents invest a lot of money towards that high education. There is nothing wrong with getting a high degree. The respect for people who are in blue- collar jobs are extremely low. Mike Rose who wrote the article, “Blue-Collar Brilliance" wrote about his own personal experience. Ross writes about his family members who had blue collar jobs and how people treated them. People who are in white collared jobs have claimed that technology does not make people who are in the blue collar jobs use their intelligence and has to rely on this tool that they are using. Rose argued differently, it is who is operating the tools rather than the tool operating the person.

Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” contemplates the age-old idea that street smarts are anti-intellectual. However, as Graff points out, “schools and colleges are at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into academic smarts.” (244). What Graff means by this is that being street smart does not mean a person lacks intelligence. Rather, educational institutions need to find a way to effectively ‘tap into’ this different format of intellectualism to produce academic intelligence. Graff goes on to point out that society associates ‘weighty’ subjects, like Shakespeare and Plato, with intellectualism, but not less serious subjects, such as sports and video games. In consideration of this overlook

We used to think that people that have good grade and higher IQ are more intelligence. Standardize test and number of IQ don’t fully measure someone’s intelligence. The goal of standardized testing is not to find out how well you think through problems, or if you can express your opinions, or create a presentation. Standardize test often test someone’s memory rather than their intelligence. There are people that doesn’t do well on standardize test but they are able to become successful at their career. There also people that do great at standardize test but they don’t perform so well at work. Intelligence mean capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc. The plumper diagnosing a problem by feeling with his hands the pipes he can’t see behind an old wall. Rose said “A good hair stylist, for instance, has the ability to convert vague request into an appropriate cut through questions, pictures, and hand gestures” (Rose 252). The hair stylist can figuring out the style a customer wants through talk and gesture. We don’t define these smart that are surround us as intelligence but we use standardize test and number of IQ to define some’s intelligence. Rose point out “What struck me as I did the research for The Mind at Work was the number of instances of reasoning, of problem-solving, of learning and applying that learning that fell outside of what gets assessed in an intelligence test or the traditional school

If education is not teaching you how to use the knowledge, the diploma would be the most useless stuff in the world. While, the common sense of people still tend to believe education means smart, vice versa. “You got college degree, you, you must be smart!” that’s many people may say to a college graduate several decades ago. However, are the graduates really as smart as people believe? Are intelligence positively associated with education or practice? Do the blue-collar workers are more stupid than white-collar? Who told you that? In the article “Blue-Collar Brilliance”, Mike Rose believes that education is not able to bring us the intelligence, while the society and environment, where we live affect our mind the most, after combining what

For instance Ungar has this to say about students receiving a liberal arts education, “They come to terms with complexity and diversity, and otherwise devise means to solve problems-rather than just complaining about them. They develop patterns to help them understand how to keep learning for the rest of their days” (232). Although I agree a liberal arts education can accomplish that, a person can also learn that through a job, in Mike Rose’s “Blue Collar Brilliance” he speaks of his mother, who dropped out of school in 7th grade (275). Without having an education Rose’s mother became a waitress, though her job seems simple it is not, she had to assess her duties at the restaurant and determine what order would help her accomplish her tasks in a timely fashion. Rose’s mother also had to deduce the moods and needs of each and every customer, according to Rose “her tip depended on how well she responded to these needs, and so she became adept at reading social cues and managing feelings, both the customers’ and her own” (275). The skills that Rose’s mother possesses are skills that Ungar would argue can only be acquired by attending college, yet this woman managed to gain them by waiting tables at a

Even though some people actually, very few people, become very successful without education. However, some may argue that dropping out of high

Readers are led to assume that the job a person works does not measure how smart they are. In today’s society, many people can not afford an education after high school but that does not mean that they are not as intelligent as a doctor or lawyer if they could afford the schooling. Not everyone has the funds to acquire degrees and titles and some just do not have the desire to continue their education. While many believe that a higher education is a worthwhile pursuit, it is also not the best route for many people. Attending college does not lead to a happy and fulfilling lifestyle for some

The “gross” jobs are going unloved in this world today. Blue-collar jobs are the same as white-collar jobs. Blue-collar jobs use the same skills. If you work hard at your job you can get anywhere with this job. Pay may be low at your starting point, but as you work harder and longer you could become a millionaire. This is the blue-collared struggle.

Conflict theory states that tensions and conflicts arise when resources, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in society and that these conflicts become the engine for social change. In this context, Marx’s conflict approach was developed in 19th century by Karl Marx (1818-83) .Marx argued wealth and power were unequally distributed in society and sought to explain how one minority group (1% ruling-class) in society maintained its dominance over the majority (working-class). Weber formulated a response to Marx’s theory. Weber saw that conflict didn’t overwhelmingly involve the economy, but that the state and economy together set up conditions for conflict. In this essay I will discuss the views of Conflict Theorists on