In the article “Blue-Collar Brilliance”, Mike Rose argues against the need for a formal education by giving examples of his own family, mainly his mother and uncle, Rose states that many often closely associate intelligence with traditional schooling even though there are many examples of people that drop out of school and still live ‘successful’ lives. While some of Rose’s points are well supported and agreeable his overall argument for the dismissal of general education is, in my view, incorrect and should not be applied in the education system.
Rose starts off his controversial article with the story of his mother, who waited tables at a small diner in the city of Los Angeles, saying how she gained the ability to pick …show more content…
Joe quit school in the ninth grade to work with the railroad, left the railroad, worked for the navy, went back to the railroad, then eventually joined his brother at a car shop, General Motors, where he was able to work his way through the ranks to become a supervisor to the paint-and-body department of the company. Once again Rose’s repetitive argument is the on the job experience that you cannot gain in a class. Nevertheless this time he focuses on how his uncle was able to get the job in the first place. In today’s society it is difficult to get a job. John Doe, who has no education but exceeding amounts of experience, will not beat Jane Smith, who does not have a great deal of experience but has a bachelor’s degree in the required major, in the resume battle. The more school cultured you are in a field the less likely you will be considered to be interviewed and in result your resume will be tossed in the …show more content…
Blue-Collar workers do have a certain kind of education that gives them the authenticity they provide in their jobs, then again in today’s world it is getting harder and harder to get by as an uneducated individual. The examples Rose provides are ideal through examples, nonetheless they do not apply to how modern society works, they apply to the 1950s way of life. Although I grant that on the job experience is extremely better than learning from a book, I still maintain that one should stay in school and push themselves to get degrees. For it is from this education that an individual would learn more and create less trial and error in the on the job