Of White and Blue

Of White and Blue

Did you know that post-secondary education is not the only avenue for one to obtain a well-paid career? The essay “Are Too Many People Going to College?” by Charles Murray offers the good and the bad side of higher education, and the essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose offers the option of jobs for the one who did not choose to get an education. Their views offer a great deal of information on what jobs may be appropriate for candidates who are looking to get into a career. But my mind believes that getting an education is always a good idea; education adopts a positive way of thinking and it helps to develop problem-solving skills. Murray and Rose give details of the white and blue collar work force. They give details on the skills that are needed to survive in each industry, and they discuss Blue Collar cleverness.

All professional positions require a demand for immergence thinking. The procedure to thrive in a white-collar position goes something like this, as Charles Murray argues it in his essay “Are Too Many People Going to College?”: The College Board will define college readiness by screening high school kids with a test called the SAT test, and having a score of 1180 on the math and verbal skill test will yield a 65 percent possibility of getting a 2.7 G.P.A in their first year of college, which 10 percent of 18 year olds will accomplish in a time where 30 percent of them will attend college. This is the score that colleges define if they will survive their environment, but Murray says that this is a not sufficient score for someone to consider getting an education in higher learning, not even for the Liberal Studies, and he also states that “it would be nice if everyone could acquire a fully formed liberal education, but they cannot” (226). But students in the top 98 percentile of who are academically incline should; because they’re more like to benefit from it; because they are more like to enjoy the experience “of dealing with complex intellectual material day after day”, students in the top percentile is what they are good at (Murray 227). Therefore, they are the type of students that should be in college to achieve a B.A. The students that are in the lower percentile with academic abilities and are in college to get a B.A, many end up dropping out. The ones that do survive and get a B.A, end up with employers that don’t give a hoot about the hard work and process that went into getting a B.A., and they will face tough competition from their competitors. The candidates are more likely to be “looking at the incomes toward the bottom of the distribution” barrel (Murray 235). And because they don’t have the ability to be academically inclined, they do not have the ability to produced tangible results. So being academic is helpful to thrive in a college environment and in the office place. All in all, I think Murray shouldn’t discourage these kids from getting an education that will help them to develop positive thinking in life. We need more positive people.

To thrive in a blue collar work force is not an easy task either. To be one of the best waitresses in a restaurant Rose Meraglio, a waitress who had to drop-out of school to help raised her brothers and sisters, balances plates of food stretching all the way up to the top of her left arm while having “two cups of coffee somehow cradled in her right hand”, all while dodging and walking full speed trough a room full of people (Rose 244). Then, while handing out the platters, Rosie remembered quite well who ordered what at the top of her head. And she knew the time limit of every meal that it took to finished being cook. “My mother learned to work smart”, says Mike Rose (245). She learned how to read people at the work place were customer with all sorts of needs came in. As the workplace became a “place where she studied human behaviour”, people with many frustrating issues came in this was no problem for her since she had “refined her ability to deal with people in a difficult” setting (246). “Her tip depended on how well she responded to the need” and social cues of her customers, “she took pride being among the public”, writes Rose (246). As a result, there wasn’t a day that went by without her learning something new. Rosie’s skills were much needed to thrive in a work place of this kind, “no wonder, then, that Rosie was intrigue by psychology” (Murray 246). As a result, Rosie didn’t need any higher education to be a great personal psychologist at her work place because she was a very smart woman. But, I bet, she would’ve gone farther in her career if she would’ve completed her education.

All these kids that are in college to get a college degree and are not suited to do so should look into the trades. Someone that is in “the 70th percentile in linguistic ability and logical mathematical ability” is someone that shouldn’t enroll in college, but who can, according to Charles Murray (235). However, they’re in the 95th percentile of motor skill and spatial abilities and that would be enough of what is needed to become an expert in the electrical field as an electrician. And they can expect to earn an income “near the top of the electricians’ income distribution” than if they would if they were to enroll in college to obtain a B.A. to seize a business manager position; then when in a manager position, they are most likely to scrape the bottom of a burned cooking-pot because they’re just “average in interpersonal and intrapersonal ability and only modest above average in academically ability” (Murray 234). Also, keep in mind that when the economy goes south or the job is outsourced to some country overseas, top electricians are going to be able to find employment when mediocre managers won’t. The demands of a high skilled tech worker of every breed are being called. Some of the fields that request a skill tech employee are “in health care, information technology, transportation networks, and every other industry that relies on high-tech equipment”, writes Murray (236). As the wealth of many American societies has gone up, the need for professional craftsmanship of all types has gone up as well. This is the first time in history where people with interest not thought in higher education are in huge demand with an income that rivals that of a White Collar worker. Just remember, “finding a first-rate lawyer or physician is easy”, but “finding first-rate skilled labor is hard” (Murray 236). On the whole, many two year colleges offer programs on high tech trades with a good blend of general education classes to choose from. The guy who decides to go to a two year college, may take even less time to complete the program to be a high skill tech, has a better chance of becoming the best at his chosen field. College has prepared him for critical thinking.

Blue Collar workers thrive in their work place. Joe Meraglio, one of Rosie’s brothers, after dropping out of school in the ninth grade to work for the railroad in PA, and then joining the navy after, and then returning back to the railroad to find out that it’s no longer in demand, finally ask his older brother, who worked at General Motors, for a position in manufacturing. He then started his career, a career of 33 years, as a worker “on the assembly line”, then as time when on, he moved on “to supervising the paint-and-body department” (Rose 247). Joe, as a supervisor, faced huge problems and, as a consequence, became a talented multitasker on the floor. He learned how to use his body in an efficient manner to meet the deadlines of many demands. Some of the demands were “parceling out physical and mental resources, keeping a number of ongoing events in his mind”, while going back to the task he “had been interrupted” on “and maintaining a cool head under the pressure of grueling production schedulers” (Rose 248). Even though he didn’t knew much about how “the machines under his supervision” function, he knew all their twist and practical limits, “he could experiment with them”, Rose adds (248). The work was monotonous and hard on the body but the shop “provided what school did not”, a place of learning (248). Altogether, Joe could have continued his education after work by attending evening classes at his local college. This would have made him a smarter worker and a better asset to his company. If Joe, at least, would had made the effort to finish a two years program, he could have been a better supervisor because education could’ve gave him a positive thinking, and positive thinking encourages.

 Murray and Rose gave out research that skill jobs, does not matter if they are white or blue, requires brain and will power to be that best. Attending college to gain general knowledge is always, or most of the time, a smart choice even if it is for a Blue Collar job. Each side of the industry has its merits for making a good living. The White Collar industry requires one to be a bookworm to make it ahead of the competition. The Blue Collar industry requires physical and brainpower and it can be very repetitious and hard on the body but minimal education is ask of. But always keep in mind that a college education can take anyone far and it is for anyone that wishes it to get it and make ones selves better.

Work cited

Murray, Charles. “Are Too Many People Going to College?” They Say/I Say with

Readings. Eds. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print. 222-442.

Rose, Mike. “Blue Collar Brilliance.” They Say/I Say with Readings. Eds. Gerald Graff,

Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print. 243-255.