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Essay / Summary of Blue-collar Brilliance: A Salute to the Working Class
Across the country, the working class and “blue-collar” individuals are looked down upon as if they are inferior to everyone else in society. The term working class defines a large group of employees in our country who do not have a college degree. In the summary of "Mike Rose's Blue-Collar Brilliance," the essay reveals how Rose evokes the idea that the working class acquires knowledge and skills by working with their hands, something most college graduates will never do. Rose uses her mother to counter the common misconception that a blue-collar worker is not as intelligent or capable of completing tasks as someone with a college degree. The working class deserves respect and recognition for the tasks they perform every day and should demand nothing less than the highest appreciation from the rest of society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the Original EssayUnveiling the Most Common Misconception About “Blue-Collar Glow”A college degree is like a key to unlock all the doors in America, whatever happens is the degree. The degree can be in a field as complex as aeronautical science or as common as a business degree. As long as you say "I graduated" and follow up at any university, you are automatically considered smart and superior to those who did not graduate from college. But what about those who can't say "I graduated"? Whether for academic, financial, or more personal reasons, many Americans are skipping college and entering the workforce directly to earn money. Mike Rose's mother, like mine, didn't go to college and get the amazing "key" to every door. Rose's mother "left school in seventh grade" while my mother only took one or two classes at Columbus State Community College. Once begging their careers for physical labor, our mothers worked long hours and many days, while others earned their college degrees at various universities. Planning and problem solving are the two most important qualities anyone can possess. The working class is forced to acquire these characteristics in order to do their jobs. Most large business owners see a problem on a piece of paper and think of a way to solve it, from the comfort of their fancy office chair. Workers are forced to solve problems “in the flow of real-time work, with all its messiness and social complexity.” The working class must solve problems on the construction site, they must be able to think independently. They don't have the luxury of thinking about ideas all day and asking others for their opinions. They must follow their intuition and hope that years of observation, training and work will not cause them to fail, no matter what difficult situation they face. The working class is better at solving problems than those who run businesses. My mother and Rose's mother worked in a restaurant after finishing school and began to learn the inside and out of "work [that] demands...both the body and the brain." My mother went to Delaware Hayes High School where she struggled with her studies and gave birth to my older brother. She had to start working to support herself and her newborn son, which forced her..