In the short essay "Some Lessons from the Assembly Line," author Andrew Braaksma explains how important it is to attend college. He writes the essay trying to inform young adults that they should continue their education after high school. Braaksma talks about his summer job working in a factory and how different the experience is. The author shares the difference between a blue-collar and white-collar job, how people don’t understand how a blue-collar be there one day and gone the next and how blue-collar jobs are manual labor with minimal pay.
I agree with the author and his points about a college education. His goal is to inform people about why you should attend college to get a degree. I believe that everyone should go to college and
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If he didn't work his summers in a factory he would of never realized how hard the work actually is. I think everyone should work both types of jobs once in their life just so they can see what they're both about. Not all white-collar jobs are easy but it's not manual labor like a blue-collar. Being a college student Braaksma realized he didn't want to work a blue collar job and needed to get his degree. Even young adults should try a blue-collar job before deciding on going to college to so they know what they want to do with their …show more content…
The work can be "frustrating" but the worst is never knowing if your job will still be there tomorrow (Braaksma.) If everyone went to college to receive a degree this would never be a worry of theirs. If they worked a blue-collar job and the place closed, they would have a degree to fall back on and easily be able to go get another job. Yes, it would be a horrible thing if someone lost their job but they would have another option, they wouldn't be stuck. If I was put in the situation I would just go out the next day and apply for jobs that I would be for eligible for with my degree. If everyone went to college to receive a degree this would never be a worry of theirs.
Most blue-collar jobs are hard, manual labor with minimal pay. "After a particularly exhaustion string of 12-hour days at a plastics factory, I remember being shocked at how small my check seemed." (Braaksma)Not all factories and blue-collar jobs pay at the very minimal wage but a lot of them do and that's a disadvantage of working that type of job and not having a degree. It's hard to live a life when you aren't bringing that much money homefrom a job that you put in many hours
In the article "Many with New College Degree Find The Job Market Humbling" by Catherine Rampell, it talks about the job market is a difficult one if you don't have the connections to the high paying jobs. It introduces a few people who are working minimum wage jobs and it tells you of their college degrees. Rampell then proceeds to talk about the amount of college degree people working minimum wage jobs and how it's a difficult life. Rampell further says that if you don't have connections or the right degree finding a job will be very difficult. Also if you are one of those people constantly switching jobs it will be difficult because eventually you might start a family and then have
Blue collar workers and white collar workers are seen by society as two very different types of occupations. Blue collar workers can be found doing hard, physical labor. A blue collar worker could be working on a construction project on a busy highway, repairing the plumbing in a house, or even driving citizens around town in a taxi. White collar workers can be found behind a desk doing paperwork, in emergency rooms treating multiple sick patients, and even teaching in classrooms at all academic levels. The social stigma is that the blue collar jobs are those tasks that most people do not want to do. However, those jobs are vital for society to run smoothly. Without blue collar jobs, communities just would not run properly or efficiently. Just imagine how terrible the condition of the roads and highways would be if it were not for the tough
One might argue that without formal education a person has low intelligence. Some people might say that blue-collar work is for the uneducated or for the lower-class society. Both of these opinions are challenged in Mike Rose`s writing Blue-Collar Brilliance. Rose uses multiple rhetorical methods within is reading to prove that blue-collar work is not for unintelligent workers. Rose reflects on his childhood and early adult hood with many references. Rose also uses many different tones throughout the duration of Blue-Collar Brilliance. Rose uses strong evidence to clearly show his opinion of blue-collar work.
Author of “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” Mike Rose, writes about observing his mother and uncle working while he is a child. His mother, a waitress, and his uncle, a foreman, both have a career considered “blue-collar.” In the magazine Newsweek, Bob Muldoon writes “White-Collar Man in a Blue-Collar World,” and explains his journey from a white-collar to a blue-collar job. Throughout the essay, while defending against the assumptions of blue-collar employees, the authors discuss the importance of blue-collar jobs and the skills equipped with them.
During reassessment for article "Some Lessons From the Assembly Line" by Andrew Braaksma (2005), I concluded similar notations, and judgements. What I developed from the material is that life has moments of bliss, nativity, and hardships. This was related by sharing experience spent at a summer job at an assembly line, clocking hours, and followed going back to college life after their time at the summer job. Also, Mr. Braaksma, expressed that college life was lenient in contrast to the summer position, emphasizing on a lack of security, complacency causes injury, and an education is valued. However, individuals tend to lack in society, within school, and even the valued education will show within the production of work. In turn, also causing a lack of security, complacency, and a worthless education. With that, an education need to be valued, and developed throughout to ensure continued success.
In Andrew Braaksma 's essay “Some Lessons from the Assembly Line,” he tells his personal insights, lessons learned and experiences, while he works a temporary summer job in a factory located near his hometown during college summer break. Braaksma describes his deep appreciation for receiving his education as he attended college and seeing what his life may have been like working a blue collar job in a factory if he did not go to college. As the majority of college students, Braaksma works during the summer to pay for his college books, beer as well as to reduce his summer housing expenses. More importantly, Braaksma chooses to move home and work at the local factory while his classmates are busy working in food service or at a local retail store. Obtaining a higher education will take him far in life without the threat or possibility of having to work a blue collar job in a factory.
In recent discussions of Is College Worth It? By John Green, a controversial issue has been whether, people should attend college or get a job after they finish high school. On the one hand, some argue that people can get a monthly income better than if they have a degree. From this perspective, some people they do not want to attend college. On the other hand, however, others insist that people should attend college after they finish high school. In the words of John Green, one of this view’s proponents, “after graduating from college, I actually made $1 per hour less when I started working as an assistant at Booklist Magazine, but the job was better in every way” (video). According to this view, he was working at Stake and Shake and he was getting better salary than what he got after graduate by 1$ less but money is not everything in life. Then he proved to the audiences through his experience that he was more comfortable with working as assistant at Booklist Magazine even he is making less money. Because he got a better job, got the knowledge, and work on something that he like. In sum, then, the issue is whether to attend college or work without a degree. My own view is that attending college is worth it even if it will cost some sacrifices of things that we can get it in the future. After, all, I have chosen to identify as a college student at Winona State University. Though I concede that choosing the university and working to enroll and pay the
In Mike Rose’s essay “Blue-collar Brilliance” published in “The American Scholar,” the author describes the intellectual powers of blue-collar laborers. Rose portrays personal experiences that formed Rose’s view on blue-collar workers. He describes how blue-collar work is perceived within society begging from the United States’ early beginnings. Rose proceeds to use tangible examples to disprove the idea of separation of intelligence from blue-collar jobs. Although some professionals categorize blue-collar work as inferior, Rose affirms that such jobs require an equal degree of intelligence as those of white-collar professions.
In "Some Lessons From The Assembly Line", the author Andrew Braaksma, is identifying an alternative to higher education. His work at the factory teaches him that people grossly underestimate the value of their time and education. While doing this he is not dismissing the value that the assembly/production line and factory adds to the world but instead acknowledging the privilege of engaging in and getting the most out of a higher education. In "Some Lessons From The Assembly Line", the author is acknowledging and I agree, there are different paths for everyone.
The first key point that the author points out is that a blue collar job is physically very demanding as he mentions that he had to work long hours in order to fulfil his job. The supporting point that he uses in the article is where he quotes “The job pays well, but it’s hell on the body”.
In this story "Some Lessons From the Assembly Line" by Andrew Braaksma (2005), Braaksma addresses how different the life is from a college student to a blue collar worker. A few of the ways he does this is by addressing the drastic life change it is from the easy college life to the harsh work life in a factory. Consequently how brutal those hours are on your body for very little pay. Lastly how shattering life can slip out from under you with nothing to fall back on without an education. The authors claim is to convince his class mates to stay in school. Consequently he reinforces that with how hard he has to work while not in school. Furthermore he states how everyone is so not happy to come back to school but he is happy to be back. Subsequently
Most workers have to take skill trades to gain the skills to work with these type of jobs. Otherwise, as finding a profession of being a white collar worker, people will have to go to college to gain a huge amount of knowledge in order to get the job. People being in a huge part of the blue-collar workforce are the middle and lower class in America. But in recent matters, this have been a decline in America. Every since the middle of the 2000 decade, Jobs for middle and lower class started to depreciate. It was a major crisis in America, millions of people who work starting to lose their jobs. It hit the hardest when the automotive industry started to lay-off workers and also closing up factories and sending them to other countries such as China. The pain of every single individual felt was the end. In 2008 the recession came and blew threw millions of unemployed Americans. At the time it was one of the worst economic crashes since the great depression. As being one of the millions of families being traumatized as we were starting to go
A majority of unemployed workers in today 's workforce have degrees. As of 2012, about 53% of unemployed workers have degrees, while about 47% of unemployed workers do not have a degree (Appendix 2). This is because the value of a degree is currently falling. Every year, its value drops. Kids are now able to find work without having to go to college, and some are actually doing quite well for themselves. A lot of jobs offer on-the-job training and that in itself allows people to be qualified for work. College degrees are now only becoming measly pieces of paper that people only want just to say that they have it. The value is diminishing not only
Getting a job in a different occupations than what one received a degree seems to be easier than fighting the other 250 people applying for that one desired job. According to Alana Semuels in her article “College-Educated Workers are Taking Jobs That Don’t Require Degrees”, in 1970 under 3% of firefighters and taxi drivers had college degrees. However, today over 15% of workers in these occupations have college degrees, along with 25% of retail workers. This proves how difficult it is to get a job in the area that a person studied in. The job market is more competitive that it has ever been. Also, the entry level positions that college graduates can get do not pay very well. A college graduate might be able to find a job in their desired field. However, it cannot pay the bills. So one might decide to be a taxi driver so they are able to pay their bills.
As I reevaluate the article "Some Lessons From the Assembly Line" by Andrew Braaksma (2005), I come to the same conclusions, and overall notes. I notice again, that transitions in life are never easy, going from an assembly line, punching the clock, and then back to college life. I also took the feeling that the Author’s college life was quite lax in comparison to hit summer work life. Other points I came across again was a lack of security within that field, not paying attention to repetitive tasks can cause injury, and the value of an education. I can relate to the value to an education, as it allows you to get into the door to vet one’s abilities. Without education, experience can land you in the same position. However, at the Author junction in life, many would not have the experience to be able to obtain secure employment, and with that I felt lucky to have been able to have obtained the experience in the service. With that, I value an education, and am now perusing that to achieve higher goals. Additionally, I don’t want to ever be in a dying field, that could disappear, or become outsourced.