Summary Of Blue Collar Brilliance

In his essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance”, Mike Rose discusses the many aspects of intelligence required to be successful in jobs or careers that are often less than glamorous. There are many jobs in our society that do not require a college degree, sometimes they don’t even require a high school diploma, yet they do require various kinds of thinking and different skill sets that are often more complex than some people give them credit for. Rose does an excellent job of dissecting what kinds of skills might be necessary for different types of blue-collar workers while showing his personal knowledge of these types of people. Rose begins the piece with anecdotes about his mother, a waitress. He talks of long childhood days sitting at diner counters or in booths in the backs of restaurants, watching his mother work. Though it is clear that Rose probably did not appreciate the intricacies of her work at the time, he adoringly reflects on his mother’s concentration, memory, and problem-solving. He speaks fondly of the kind …show more content…
He tries to instill in the reader an appreciation for the valuable knowledge that people develop working in different situations, the kinds of careers that some people may look down on, and how we can all learning something from them. In his studies of blue-collar workers, Rose learned a great deal about time-management, memory, and other tactical skills of those who do jobs where they must work quickly and efficiently to be successful. These workers do not have the luxury of sitting behind a desk to solve a problem, they often have to do it on the fly, while doing two or three other things. Rose’s appreciation of this kind of thinking leaves an impression on the reader that will hopefully cause them to be more considerate when thinking of the types of people who do manual labor for their