Essay On Blue Collar Brilliance

Improved Essays
In today’s society individuals that do not have a high level of education are frowned upon based on the occupation they have. Positions in the work field that do not require anything higher than a high school diploma are technicians, plumbers and oil operators. These jobs are given with basic training, but most of the learning is developed within time. When people call a blue collar service man, it is usually to assist them in a task they cannot do themselves. Every career has a worker developing new skills and more intelligence as time goes on. In the short novel, “Blue Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose, he argues how occupations are stereotypically categorized based on the knowledge of the workers. Rose explains how family is a predominant …show more content…
Rose claims that the distinction between the working classes such as the blue, white and pink collars is that many of them have different levels of intelligence as well as other attributes. He notices how many occupational workers have ways in which they handle information being thrown at them. Workers get accustomed to the environment around them, but within time they make adjustments to better help them in their career. Rose observes that manipulating the instruments in their career also helps out the workers to better comprehend their line of work. Rose reminds us that through experience, workers develop a routine of work that is only useful for others in that career. He also includes that workers organize and develop skills that appropraiteley respond to a person’s social cues to understand what the person may need. Having knowledge and using it as a routine is what Rose emphasizes on when he talks about the thought process of blue collar workers. Rose acknowledges the work of other working classes but particularly shows insight on blue collar workers and their struggles. He praises the blue collar workers because of their hardship and hard

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Blue-Collar Workers in My Family? In the article, “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” the author Mike Rose explains to us that just because workers do not have so much schooling, it does not mean that they do not have the intelligence for their field of work. Rose goes on to tell us about what he has observed and analyzed through the years about blue collar workers. Rose gives us two main examples of this argument and how he has come to a conclusion of what he thinks of blue collar workers.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mike Rose was and American teacher and writer. He has wrote eleven books in his life time; most of them focused on literacy and language, and he received several awards. In his passage, Blue-Collar Brilliance, Rose delivers his message excellently about the intelligence and skills of blue collar workers through stories, research, and his presentation on the topic. The first way Rose backs up his claim is through personally stories about his relatives. His first story describes his mother “Rosie “at her job.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the first reading “Blue-Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose, his main claim is that intelligence is looked an requirement to have in order to obtain a well-paying job, than a person who works and have little or no education at all; are seen as not very inteallencge people and cannot perform well nor axel in their jobs. An example from this reading is his uncle, Joe Meraglio, who left school in the ninth grade to work in Pennsylvania railroad leaving to join the navy, to returning to the railroad, to working with his brother in the general motors and then finally supervising the paint and body department. These jobs required no school but the jobs that required no school background were the ones where you are constantly learning by experience,…

    • 162 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the excerpt Limbo written by Alfred Lubrano, there are crucial elements that show the author’s sense of identity. In this essay, I will critically analyze the differences between blue-collar and white-collar mindsets/belief system using facts from Limbo. There are three characteristics of a blue-collar mindset. The first mindset of a blue-collar worker is aggressiveness. In the excerpt there are many examples that show the aggressiveness that comes with people who have grown up in a blue-collar household.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Working Heroes In Disguise Steve Olson defends the Blue-Collar Guy in his written work Year of The Blue-Collar Guy. He uses pathos, repetition, imagery and many other rhetorical strategies to bring his point across to the readers. While not as serious or scientific as other writers, Olson sheds light on the common conventional image of the BGC, or blue-collar guy. Olsen starts off his essay with an easy to spot fallacy.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Pink challenges his readers to look past the norm. for years and years psychologists and economists have over-looked profusely the fact that the old ways do not work anymore in this twenty-first century we live in. Author Daniel Pink has defined a new concept of work and life. He believes that everything one does in life has to have a meaning. Like mentioned before, what truly matters in one’s life happens between birth and death.…

    • 165 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Elite student in the 21st century are often described as, quick, witty, or shape. Now as time has passed, smartness found in students is not creative or intellectual but rather standardized and generic. Originality, within the student body has fairly decreased over the years. As the school system becomes more standardized, students start to lack creatively when the hierarchies main goal is for individuals to fit in a one-size-fits all model. In “Biography of Hegemony” and “Project Classroom Makeover,” both authors address their concern that the hierarchy in schools and Wall Street are placing standards on individuals solely on the importance of name and test scores.…

    • 1684 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    - In both articles, authors were talking about how the academic and non-academic learning can be more valuable in the society, we found many facts that tell us how society can respect you if you are an educated individual. “Blue-collar Brilliance”, Professor Mike Rose address that society’s blind views on the intellectual ability of the people operating jobs related to serving or manual workers. Rose indicated that blue collar workers miss focusing on the intelligence needed in their businesses. Besides, he stated that the relationship between certain never proclaims worker intelligence.…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Higher Education or Not? Charles Murray, in his article “Are too Many People Going to College?” addresses that students should learn the “core knowledge” from an early age. He underlines that children in grades kindergarten through eighth are far better off with memorization and learning the facts easier. He also argues that in high school children should only take social science and humanities courses that will prepare them for college classes.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Brooks’ Article causes Political Comments David Brooks’ “Dignity and Sadness in the Working Class” clarifies a portion of the unfairness that the working class is subjected to in today’s society. David Brooks’ essay was published on September 20th, 2016 in The New York Times in the Opinion section. The New York Times is a highly-respected newspaper site which delivers “high quality news and information” (“Standards and Ethics”). Brooks starts off his essay by including an anecdote about a working class man from Kentucky who has spent most of his life working, yet, felt isolated because of his social status. Then, Brooks transitions into explaining his perspective on the working class.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some people consider white-collar workers smarter than blue-collar workers. Blue-collar work requires intelligence, too. Blue-collar workers have experience just like white-collar workers. Blue-collar workers get it by time not by education. However, they get less esteem.…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The big question is, "are you willing to pay now, in time and money, for the following long-term rewards"? Of all of the new jobs now being created, most will require a education beyond high school. It's a sign that the worker is serious about the job, knows how to learn, and can achieve goals. Employers often see college graduates as more motivated.…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In fact, “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 30 projected fastest growing jobs between 2010 and 2020, five do not require a high school diploma, nine require a high school diploma, four require an associate 's degree, six require a bachelor 's degree, and six require graduate degrees” (Pros and Cons). It seems as if there are more jobs for those with a lower education than for those who have a bachelor’s degree. However, it is stated that, “In 2007 people with a bachelor 's degree earned an average $57,181, or 63 percent more than those with some college or an associate 's degree and 83 percent more than those with only a high-school diploma” (Billitteri). Although there may be more jobs that require little education, the amount of money made is significantly less. In addition, a good number of high paying jobs require at least an associate’s degree.…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the United States, are individuals who are underpaid and are abused in the labor force. These individuals take it because they have no choice and it is an ultimate necessity. The minimum wage they earn is barely getting them by every single day. The upper and middle class are not aware of their circumstances because their situation is distinctly different. They are distinctly different due to their level of education, but what happens when an upper class person decides to become and underemployed employee?…

    • 1547 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays