Blue Collar Brilliance Summary

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In the article, “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” Mike Rose questions if people with blue collar jobs are unintelligent or if they have a separate type of knowledge that can only be learned through working. He argues that these jobs demand skills that workers can’t get through formal education but through experience. Rose efficiently persuades the reader by using various personal narrative and examples of how blue-collar workers gain knowledge through their jobs. He recounts stories of his mother Rosie and his Uncle Joe and he examines how other hands-on jobs require certain skills that they could only master through practice and hard work.
Over the years of being a waitress, Rosie, Mike Rose’s mother, picked up on certain special skills. She learned how to read customers emotions and needs. When depicting Rosie’s job in his article, Rose stated “I’ve since studied the working habits of blue-collar workers and have come to understand how much my mother’s kind of work …show more content…
He used different examples of jobs to prove his thesis further; one of his examples was the way a hairstylist must be able to recognize what their client wants from the most unclear descriptions. If they were to get it wrong, it would be the hairstylists fault not the customers. In the article, he wrote “A significant amount of teaching, often informal and indirect, takes place at work” (Rose, 281). The hairstylist should learn how to read what their client wants and deliver it well. A skill that they could only know and master through hard hands-on work. Rose also described how a plumber must have knowledge of what tools to use and how to use them and in certain situations they must be able to make judgement calls that only they could decide. These jobs can be a type of schooling for those who don’t do well in a formal learning setting. They need to develop skills for their job and learn how perform their job

Summary Of Blue Collar Brilliance

The articulation of the essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose is a composite of how typical hard-working individuals are labeled solely on the education they have received during their lifetime. Both his mother Rose and uncle Joe where hard workers without college degrees. Rose makes it abundantly clear, “Like anyone who is effective at physical work, my mother learned to work smart” to make it from one day to another (2). As a waitress, Rosie had to balance social skills with management skills…

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Summary Of Blue Collar Brilliance

In the essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose he begins with a description of his mother Rosie’s work life, who is a waitress at coffee shops and family restaurants, he goes into detail of her daily routines, how everyday she would memorize orders, knows how to deal with customers, how long orders would take, and more. Also describes his Uncle Joe’s job, he talks about how he worked in a General Motors Factory and how he moved up from production line to supervising paint jobs. What Joe and Rosie…

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Summary Of Blue Collar Brilliance

On June 1, 2009 Mike Rose's article Blue Collar Brilliance expressed the importance of blue collar careers versus the white collar work force. Rose demonstrates that the blue collar workers are often under appreciated for what they must do day in and day out. Also, how much these workers learn while performing their duties. Rose compared the blue collar jobs to the rigors of attending school, only to be learning and working at the same time. Rose was exposed to this environment early on in childhood…

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Blue Collar Brilliance Summary

Dictionary defines blue-collar as “of or relating to manual work or workers, particularly in industry. Wikipedia as: “In English-speaking countries, a blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled manufacturing, mining, sanitation, custodian work, oil field, construction, mechanical maintenance, warehousing, firefighting, technical installation and many other types of physical work.” In comparison, “Blue-Collar Brilliance” a short…

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Summary Of Blue Collar Brilliance By Mike Rose

Summary of “Blue Collar Brilliance” In the narrative article, “Blue Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose, he challenges the view that a person’s intelligence is measured by the amount of schooling the person has accomplished. It is understood that the blue collar jobs consist of more intelligence than other jobs. Throughout the article, Mike Rose addresses his personal experiences with family that has worked within blue collar jobs and service jobs, his research and results. The Rose family didn’t do…

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Blue Collar Brilliance Mike Rose Summary

Blue Collar Brilliance, is a totally captivating and informative article written by Mike Rose. Without a doubt this article broadened my perspective on how I view my job as a Home Health Aide, as well as the job of others. Works tasks I once considered subpar, I now realize holds immense potential. The potential for me to grow intellectually, emotionally and physically. Mike Rose proves with astounding facts derived from witnessing his Mother’s passion, and commitment to her job as a Waitress, that…

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Summary Of Mike Rose's Blue-Collar Brilliance

There is a stigma against blue-collar workers. To some, they are seen as ‘lesser’. There are those who see them as less intelligent, less driven, less fortunate. They are ‘less intelligent’ because they did not pursue higher education, and therefore, cannot possibly be as smart as those who have. They are ‘less driven’ also because they did not go to college. Maybe they began work straight out of highschool, maybe they couldn’t actually finish; because of this they are ‘stuck’ in lower paying positions…

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