The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker ~ Mike Rose
* “Cognition refers to those mental processes involving perception, attention, memory, knowing, judging.”
*“Skill is ‘proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience.”
*“Work. What our society defines as work also changes over time and place…what classifies as work in one setting could be called a hobby next, it’s all about context.”
These are the three components for what is considered a job or a career. Very too often the working class gets looked down on because they have jobs that did not require them to go to an institute of higher learning. Therefore causing members of society who belong to the white collar class to think the workers are stupid and are only good with their hands. They do not give consideration to the fact that these workers had to go through some other form of training. And also that education is not just about what you learn from books and in school it is also about what your experiences, you grow and learn a lot about yourself and the world. What Mike Rose the author of this book is trying to do is show us that there is more to being part of the working class than not going to college, these people work extremely hard for everything and without them the world would be dirty, in despair and un-enriched. Rose talks about the journalist, Barbara Ehrenreich who went undercover and did research on jobs such as waitressing and cleaning maid services. What she found was that these people work extremely hard to make ends meet and they still come up short because they get paid the minimum wage. She also learned a lot about herself and her new found friends in this experience. But in no way were these people stupid at all, some were trying to get ahead in their life but were constantly being pulled back by their living situations and lack of savings since it was hard to live from paycheck to paycheck and be able to save money.
Rose states at the beginning of the introduction, “I’ve been thinking about this business of intelligence for a long time: the way we decide who’s smart and who isn’t, the way the work someone does feeds into that judgment, and the effect such judgment has on our sense of who we are and what we can do.” This statement is so true who really decides who is intelligent and who isn’t? Is it just limited to book smarts or book smarts and street smarts or street smarts? I have to say you may be the smartest person in the world but you do not have any common sense I would have to say that as a person living in this world you would be in a lot of trouble. I most certainly agree with Rose when he says, “our cultural iconography we are given the muscled arm, sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no thought bright behind the eye, no image that links hand and brain.” Our ability to use our hands and create something beautiful such as a carpenter when he makes the most gorgeous carvings you have ever seen on the mahogany table you just had to get or the granite table found in the facilities conference room at the University of Richmond for some reason is not seen as something that required intelligence to make. Or the beautifully embroidered dress with the Versace tag on it you spent way too much money on; that required a lot of labor on the people WHO ACTUALLY sewed it. It takes more that the use of hands, the brain has to tell the hands what to do that brain also had to decide what design to choose and how to place it etc. It may not be the same thing as drawing up proposal plans or lobbing to get rid of a bill but it takes the same process and is HARDER that all the mental things. I can sew but no way am I able to sew something as gorgeous or even fit for sale as those men and women who sit in factory and sew the clothes that I buy. I tried to sew a black skirt with a side slit, and four accent colors flowing from the slit with a sash attached at the top and it was extremely hard in the end I just ended up sewing a black skirt and pinning the rest on. Before that experience I did not realize how hard it was to sew such a simple design. I also know what it is like to work to jobs one being a late night job after a long day classes, I quit after two months it was just too much.
On September 24th, 2008 Ms. Carmadee come into class today and gave us a brief introduction on the UR touchdown project. She explained that we would be helping the staff improve on their work writing, purposeful writing. We brainstormed topics that would be of interest to the staff. I think it is great the University of Richmond is giving back to the hard working loyal staff. I am told some have been here for twenty years. I would be nice to work with remarkable people and help them improve on their writing skills and help them when they take advantage of the free class for staff and faculty members.
* “Cognition refers to those mental processes involving perception, attention, memory, knowing, judging.”
*“Skill is ‘proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience.”
*“Work. What our society defines as work also changes over time and place…what classifies as work in one setting could be called a hobby next, it’s all about context.”
These are the three components for what is considered a job or a career. Very too often the working class gets looked down on because they have jobs that did not require them to go to an institute of higher learning. Therefore causing members of society who belong to the white collar class to think the workers are stupid and are only good with their hands. They do not give consideration to the fact that these workers had to go through some other form of training. And also that education is not just about what you learn from books and in school it is also about what your experiences, you grow and learn a lot about yourself and the world. What Mike Rose the author of this book is trying to do is show us that there is more to being part of the working class than not going to college, these people work extremely hard for everything and without them the world would be dirty, in despair and un-enriched. Rose talks about the journalist, Barbara Ehrenreich who went undercover and did research on jobs such as waitressing and cleaning maid services. What she found was that these people work extremely hard to make ends meet and they still come up short because they get paid the minimum wage. She also learned a lot about herself and her new found friends in this experience. But in no way were these people stupid at all, some were trying to get ahead in their life but were constantly being pulled back by their living situations and lack of savings since it was hard to live from paycheck to paycheck and be able to save money.
Rose states at the beginning of the introduction, “I’ve been thinking about this business of intelligence for a long time: the way we decide who’s smart and who isn’t, the way the work someone does feeds into that judgment, and the effect such judgment has on our sense of who we are and what we can do.” This statement is so true who really decides who is intelligent and who isn’t? Is it just limited to book smarts or book smarts and street smarts or street smarts? I have to say you may be the smartest person in the world but you do not have any common sense I would have to say that as a person living in this world you would be in a lot of trouble. I most certainly agree with Rose when he says, “our cultural iconography we are given the muscled arm, sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no thought bright behind the eye, no image that links hand and brain.” Our ability to use our hands and create something beautiful such as a carpenter when he makes the most gorgeous carvings you have ever seen on the mahogany table you just had to get or the granite table found in the facilities conference room at the University of Richmond for some reason is not seen as something that required intelligence to make. Or the beautifully embroidered dress with the Versace tag on it you spent way too much money on; that required a lot of labor on the people WHO ACTUALLY sewed it. It takes more that the use of hands, the brain has to tell the hands what to do that brain also had to decide what design to choose and how to place it etc. It may not be the same thing as drawing up proposal plans or lobbing to get rid of a bill but it takes the same process and is HARDER that all the mental things. I can sew but no way am I able to sew something as gorgeous or even fit for sale as those men and women who sit in factory and sew the clothes that I buy. I tried to sew a black skirt with a side slit, and four accent colors flowing from the slit with a sash attached at the top and it was extremely hard in the end I just ended up sewing a black skirt and pinning the rest on. Before that experience I did not realize how hard it was to sew such a simple design. I also know what it is like to work to jobs one being a late night job after a long day classes, I quit after two months it was just too much.
On September 24th, 2008 Ms. Carmadee come into class today and gave us a brief introduction on the UR touchdown project. She explained that we would be helping the staff improve on their work writing, purposeful writing. We brainstormed topics that would be of interest to the staff. I think it is great the University of Richmond is giving back to the hard working loyal staff. I am told some have been here for twenty years. I would be nice to work with remarkable people and help them improve on their writing skills and help them when they take advantage of the free class for staff and faculty members.
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