After not taking the job offer at Menards, Ehrenreich starts to question why she did not ask about the wages and hours before agreeing to a drug test. When she arrives for her very first day on the job, she is disappointed when she is told that she would be working in ladies wear. She thought that the concept of keeping females in the ladies department was incredibly sexist and wrong. Another issue is that she never found a permanent place to live in Minnesota, she was always living in a hotel (Ehrenreich 145-158). During her second week, she is unaware that her schedule has changed and only knew about it because she studied the work schedule.…
In an interview with Butler in 1999,she explains why she wrote about a company like KSF. She is speculating what might happen if poor minorities and immigrants in the United States continue to be pushed to the margins of society. “I wrote the way I did about education in the two novels because I kept hearing or reading such contempt for public education, and at the same time such enthusiasm for the building and filling of more and more prisons”. America itself is becoming a company town, Americans are living off of borrowed more in the form of loans and credit cards. The lenders of these loans and credit cards take what Americans own such as their cars, houses, or anything that holds great value.…
In this chapter, "Evaluation", Ehrenreich, compared many aspects of Living an impoverished lifestyle, including inequalities, living on minimum wage, and overcoming her hardships (Ehrenreich, 2001). Ehrenreich talked about her experiences at the 6 jobs she held. For instance, at The Maids she was an…
Intern Nation by author Ross Perlin analyzes the current state of internships in astoundingly immensedetail. In specific, Perlin focuses on the variety of internships, including “the good, the bad, and the ugly; the paid and the unpaid; the ostensibly academic and the completely untethered; part-time internships lasting a few weeks and full-time ones last a year” (XVI). These elements are described through first-hand accounts; for example, the interns at Disney World and the government interns on Capitol Hills. These elements are also described through in-depth investigation; for example, the 18 percent of interns who work without pay or the evidence of companies and government organizations firing full-time paid staff and replacing them with…
Going to a four year university seems like the only way a person is to make it in society. Contrary to common thought, Larry Cuban, a former high school social studies teacher, school district superintendent, and professor emeritus of education at Stanford, addresses some key points within his article, “Why Everyone Shouldn’t Go to College”, that favor forgoing college. Cuban gives a few examples, backed with credible information, that support one’s decision to skip out on a conventional college education to focus on alternate routes. With a strong ethos and consistent usage of logos to support his claims, Cuban is able to grasp the attention of his readers and convincingly persuade common thought. Cuban covers the costs of college, associate degrees for non-college students, whiles also including various truths that many individuals of academic authority would not advocate.…
She chose to share her wealth with the students she works with, buying them everything from books, school supplies, and groceries. Who better to tell them than someone who has been in their shoes?” she asks (Oct…
In the article, “It’s Not About You,” columnist David Brooks of the New York Times shares his opinions on the advice presented to college students today. Brooks’ purpose is to reveal to the audience that most college students are unfairly left unprepared for society, although they have successfully completed their formal education. In order to support this reasoning, David Brooks openly addresses the irony in the advice that modern day college students receive, and emphasizes various contrasts between the advice given, and the real world. In his article, Brooks openly develops a negative attitude towards the guidance given to college students.…
After reading Some Lessons From the Assembly Line by Andrew Braaksma (2005), the essay details a transition of Braaksma's views. At the beginning of the article, Braaksma reveals his comfortable life and the way he views his world. As Braaksma starts working on the assembly line, his entire perspective on college and life changes. Braaksma learns that the real world is a much different place, and people have different types of hardships and problems they experience. The harsh reality of life help Braaksma appreciate the opportunities afforded to him.…
As a high school student, I all too frequently find myself bombarded with emails and postcards detailing the exuberant life of a college campus. Within the last week, I have received an email from Sarah Lawrence College that described their welcoming community and their high rating among the LGBT community, an email from University of Richmond that details their very own internship program, and an email from Soka University that proclaimed their devotion to diversity in all things. They want to sell me their college experience, not a college education. Edmundson’s article is correct in it argument that University education is tainted by consumerism. College has become a playtoy for the rich and smart students that have freely given up the opportunity to learn and excel.…
Throughout history, students have been pushed to their limits by the government’s standards of living, and today’s college reality is no exception. In Alana Semuel’s article called “Manual Labor, All Night Long: The Reality of Paying for College,” we meet Alexis Mclin, a college student struggling with the burden of pushing herself past her limitations. Mclin works at a UPS facility between midnight and four in the morning. All the while proceeding to go observe an elementary school like setting and attend a lab for her class, not only is Mclin running on a lack of sleep but she’s endangering her future by pushing herself too far.…
An internship is normally a work task a student completes after a series of classes to gain a degree in a particular field they think they’ll love, whether they still love it after they’ve completed that journey is based upon a multitude of criteria. Luckily, I have found that I quite enjoy fashion and working in retail throughout this internship at Dress Barn. Occasionally students find that what they thought they were getting into, is actually completely different than what they expected. Especially when reading about a profession on paper versus seeing it up closer in real life. When I started college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study or achieve with my life.…
Since readers may be able to relate to some of the situations she faced throughout the story, they will either support or oppose how she handled some of the issues. Some of these instances include whenever Ehrenreich explains how hard it really is to “live off such small amounts of money (Ehrenreich 212)” and whenever she explains the wage breakdown in her housekeeping job: “The Maids charges $25 per person per hour and they get paid only $6.65 per hour (Ehrenreich 72).” By how hard it is to live off a small amount of money, Ehrenreich is demonstrating the difficulty that most minimum wage workers have on a daily basis. Secondly, by explaining the wage breakdown of The Maids, she explains the difference between what the companies make and what the workers make.…
Barbara Ehrenreich decided to test an experiment and enter in low- wage jobs to see if it’s possible to live on a minimum wage salary. Throughout her experiment Ehrenreich plunged herself right in and shortly discovered how difficult it was to afford the basic necessities, such as, paying rent, having money for food and clothes, and having health benefits. Through her experience, Ehrenreich finds that minimum wage jobs do not make it possible to get by in America because they do not give workers enough money to provide for themselves or their families. Through her studies, Ehrenreich works with many different people with many different backgrounds.…
The amount of tasks and job performance tests is incredible for an unpaid internship lasting six months and especially for somebody in his financial situation. But the hard work all paid off at the end. He was offer the position that he dreamed…
An Intern’s Dilemma Have you ever felt that something was not quite right? As an intern Mark was asked to do something he just did not feel comfortable doing. He knew he needed to complete his internship, but was not comfortable lying to the companies he was seeking information from about who he was representing. Mark had a lot to process through and decide how he would proceed. He needed to decide what was ethical, how his ethics aligned with the corporations, and how he would respond to the request.…