Summary Of Mike Rose's Blue Collar Brilliance

In Donna Beegle’s article An Insider’s Perspective: The Donna Beegle Story, purpose and mastery are two traits that helped her throughout life. Growing up, Donna Beegle didn’t see why education was important. The people she grew up with people that didn’t have an education higher than an eighth grade level, because many of them dropped out, got married, and started a family. Then she followed their footsteps. As she went through obstacles with her husband, four pregnancies (two of them living), and low-wage jobs leading to financial problems, Donna Beegle and her family kept moving from place to place. As years passed by, she got a divorced and had to raise her children alone. She eventually found a program, which its goal were to help single women gain an education skills to earn a living for their families. After going through the program, she decided to get her GED and continue in furthering her education. Entering college was tough for her, because she didn’t know how to talk or write properly, until one of professors, Dr. Bob Fulford decided to offer her help to correct her grammar. She accepted the offer saying, “Yes. Please teach me how to talk like you, because no one thinks I am smart. No one asks my opinion. I feel like no one can hear me.” As time went on, she got more help with other professors that Dr. Fulford connected her with. Eventually, she got her bachelor’s degree, to master’s, all the way to doctorate level.

Ehrenreich eventually found work as a waitress, where she learned firsthand the struggles of working in a restaurant for minimum wage. The pace that the work demanded oscillated from lethargic to manic,

Ehrenreich is an essay writer as well as an undercover journalist. An “undercover journalist” is a form of journalism in which a reporter tries to infiltrate in a community by posing as somebody friendly to the community. Ehrenreich decided to go undercover to research the problems faced by low-wage employees. She then does waitressing at a “family restaurant,” at Hearthside Restaurant. Rose comes from a blue collar background, but became a professor who studies issues like learning and intelligence. Rose set out to study the cognition of physical work, the knowledge involved, the kinds of decisions made, and what kinds of problems were solved. Rose looked back at his childhood memories of his mother Rosie Rose, his mother was a

In this story, “Blue Collar Brilliance” the author Mark Rose protested that intelligence can be consistent by the amount of education a person has done. Rose advises that blue collar and service jobs lacks more intelligence. In the essay, Rose talks about “how he grew up observing his mother as a waitress in coffee shops and restaurants” (1034, Rose). He describes his mother as charismatic because she loves her job and a hard worker, also she puts her heart and soul in being a waitress. Rose describes her mother’s job on how she what orders people wanted, how much time it took for each dish to be made, and how she became a professional at analyzing the affecting rights of her customers and employees. “ He also describes his uncle’s job  at the General Motors factory and demonstrates tons of amount of intelligence that was mandatory of him as he jumped from being in the production line to administer paint jobs” (1036, Rose). “Rose explains in the story on how he observed different blue collar workers and he came to the closure, that each blue collar worker has a skill that takes a great deal of mind power to master” (1038, Rose).  The central claim of the story is, “many kinds of physical work does not require a high literacy level” (1041, Rose). Some examples of this claim would be, “like anyone who is effective at physical work, my mother learned to work smart, as she put it, to make every move count” (1034, Rose). “I couldn’t have put it in words when I was growing up, but what I observed in my mother’s restaurant defined the world of adults, a place where working habits of blue-collar workers and have come to understand how much my mother’s kind of work demands both body and brain (1034, Rose). “Still, for Joe the shop floor provided what school did not, it was like schooling, he said, a place where you’re constantly learning, Joe learned the most efficient way to use his body by acquiring a set of routines that were quick and preserved energy” (1036-1037, Rose). “He lacked formal knowledge of how the machines under his supervision worked, but he had direct experience with them, hands-on knowledge, and

Summary excerpt called “Why School” written by Mike Rose. In this story, Rose explains a specific situation that happens between two friends. School is not for everybody, but it does help even those who have a disability or a hard time comprehending information. In this excerpt, Rose writes about one person’s point of view and their experience in the situation. Anthony, Rose’s friend, has brain damage from a childhood accident that has slowed him down from excelling in his education, but not from wanting to learn. Anthony is enrolled into a community college, and a basic skills program. He can barely read or write, but he is a very smart guy, and not being able to read or right did not stop him form getting an education. A lot of Anthony’s knowledge comes from everyday things, like listening to the radio, and watching television. Here is a rundown on what is going on in the situation. This is a summary of what happens in the story (320).

Mike Rose’s introduces his argument by explaining the intelligence of blue collar workers and emphasizing his belief that blue-collar jobs require certain skills and tasks acquired by experience, and should not be viewed as menial tasks held by uneducated people. He goes on to point out that there are many people that feel “intelligence is…the type of schooling a person has…[and] work requiring less school requires less intelligence,” but then goes on to explain why this belief is simply not true. Rose starts with the story of his mother, Rosie, and describes what he has observed of her intelligence throughout the years of his childhood, as he

Many people consider book smart the only form of intelligence, but a lot of people who attended college and obtained a degree can’t perform a basic task of changing a flat tire. So does that make those people unintelligent? Mike Rose explains in “Blue Collar Brilliance” and Gerald Graff explains in “Hidden Intellectualism” that there are many different forms of intelligence. In Rose’s article, he explains how he observed his mother along with other family members work blue-collar jobs. He explains how everyone involved with blue collared work develops a sense of intelligence in many different forms. In Graff’s article, he explains how schools and colleges are doing a poor job at getting the full potential out of students. Graff thinks that if we give students things they like to read then they will progress to more scholarly readings. Both authors describe how society doesn’t value all types of intellectualism. Rose explains how people are stereotyping blue-collared jobs and not appreciating them. Graff explains how schools and colleges aren’t fostering intellectualism because they don’t take interests into account.

In the article, Rose use many emotional personal examples to help the reader understand the amount of hard work and intelligence a blue collar job requires. Rose creates a personal connection with the reader by describing his first-hand experience of growing up watching his mother put her heart and soul into being a waitress in a restaurant. Rose says, “She described the way she memorized who ordered what, how long each dish is supposed to take to prepare, and how she became a pro at meeting the emotional needs of her customers and colleagues alike.” From the quote in the article the reader understand that Roses mother was required to have a high level of intelligence in order to meet the needs of her customers and colleagues alike in order to do her job proficiently. Rose uses emotion in this quote to make the reader relate to his mother and understand that she was a hard worker and did everything in her power to do whatever it took in order to hopefully receive a tip that would be used to support her family. Rose also says, “I couldn’t have put it in words when I was growing up, but what I observed in my mother’s restaurant defined the world of adults, a place where competence was synonymous with physical work”. Rose uses in this quote to relate that his mother’s job

The second form of appeal the author uses as aid in proving his claim, along with pathos, is ethos or an appeal to ethics and moral principal. Rose shows the innate intelligence of his mother and uncle by describing the different techniques they improvise to complete the task at hand. An example of improvising strategies is when Rose mentions, "Joe learned the most efficient way to use his body by acquiring a set of routines that were quick and preserved energy",

Rose uses References through-out the reading to prove his claim of blue-collar brilliance. He explains multiple situations he has been through growing up in a blue-collar family. Rose writes about his memories of watching his mother work as a waitress in a restaurant. He explains the skills and work ethic he watched his mother learn over the years. Rose states, “A waitress acquires knowledge and intuition about the ways and the rhythms of the restaurant business. Waiting on seven to nine tables, each with two to six customers, Rosie devised memory strategies so that she could remember who ordered what” (274). The uncle of Rose is also used as a reference in Blue-Collar Brilliance. Rose recalls his Uncle Joe explaining that working in the factory could teach him what school could not. Rose explains that his uncle: “initiated the redesign of the nozzle on a paint sprayer,

As Mike even began to study those who worked around the same level as that of his family, he began to piece together his belief that those of the “blue-collar” work force did have their own intelligence from “waitressing and hair styling to plumbing and welding.” (Rose 396) He noticed more and more of them portraying their own intelligence through their work. He says we “[separate] the body from the mind” instead of having them work together. (Rose 397) It was

“My mother Rose Mesaglio (Rosie), shaped her idenity as a waitress in coffee shops and family resteraunts” (Rose, 2009) This is by far one of my favorite statements offered by Rose, from my own experiences in the work field. I like Rose’s mother

Five years past, she had given up all the privilege her parents offered, as she hated the college path her parents set, lavish and prestigious as it was. With her parents unwilling to back down, she had left to go find a job waiting tables while paying for a college course that she loved with her meagre earnings. Her life has radically changed from what she had growing up, but at last she can enjoy her independence and freedom. As for family, she now has a friend in another waitress named Roxy, a young man named Axton that just like her had been banished by his wealthy father, and the elderly owner of the café she waits tables at, Ma. While Rose is a likable and fun person, she never takes any nonsense from anyone.

In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” experience characterizes the older waiter because he empathizes with those around him, thereby proving that enduring hardships encourages greater acceptance of others. By explaining how he is different from the young waiter, the older waiter clarifies why he disagrees with the young waiter’s decision to force the deaf customer to leave: “I have never had confidence and I’m not young. … I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe. … With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night” (Hemingway 9). Without the overconfidence of the young waiter, the older waiter has humility, a trait that allows him to develop empathy through his life experience. Also, the waiter is older, so he persevered through more difficult situations than the young waiter. Since he undergoes the same sleeplessness that the deaf man faces, the older waiter willingly sacrifices his time because he notices the importance of his job at the cafe to other people. Furthermore, the older waiter acknowledges the importance of the cafe to those like him when he describes that “[e]ach night [he is] reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe. … This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves” (Hemingway 9). Unlike

First, being employed in the blue-collar industry a person must show intuition. Rose studied the habits of the blue-collar workplace, and based on his observations came to better understand how the job requires both physical and mental capabilities of an individual. The author Mike Rose, grew up in the 1940’s, this is an example of ethos in the story. Rose observed his mother, Rosie Rose work in a local restaurant as a waitress. Rose observed his mother’s impressive ability to retain food orders while keeping track of her list of side work was a skill demonstrating her intuitive capabilities that were learned out her