Blue Collar Brilliance

Michael Metzdorf
Dr.Tomko
WRT-101-039
3/4/16
Comparing and Contrasting Two Articles Both articles, “Are Too Many People Going to College?” and “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” differ in many ways from each of the author’s own experiences. The first article “Are Too Many People Going to College” argues a bachelor’s degree is a necessity and your ticket into the working world. If a person doesn’t get a 4-year-college degree society will judge him or her as being not as smart or less than someone who possesses a bachelor’s degree. However, “Blue-Collar Brilliance” argues that while it’s still important to get a bachelor’s degree, there are still some good high paying jobs that don’t require any college education at all. And by working a trade 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. In the article, “Are Too Many People Going to College,” the author mentions how “…college is seen as the open sesame to a good job” (Murray 245). Also it glorifies the benefits of receiving higher education. For example, there are people that make more money with a college degree then someone without one (Murray