Blue Collar and College

Is College Worth It? Is college the only way to success? If the answer is yes, so why Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are college dropouts and millions of graduated students with degrees from four-year higher education institutions cannot find jobs. Today, a college education does not guarantee you anything. It is not an automatic ticket to get a good job as people believe. These issues are viewed more sharpen via two writers’ point of views Mike Rose and Caroline Bird.

Based on their essays, Rose with “Blue-Collar Brilliance” and Bird with “College is a Waste of Time and Money”, both suggest college is not the only way to succeed and that society mistakenly overvalues a college education. It is time to rethink the idea about college. By showing that knowledge can be acquired outside the classroom, Rose repudiates that people who spend more time in school, are not more brilliant than those who do not. He says, “Though work-related actions become routine with experience, they were learned at some point through observation, trial and error. Even if people are not college educated, they can deal with various problems that they face in the work by using their experiences that colleges do not teach them. Rose’s mother, Rosie was a waitress; the restaurant became the place where she studied human behavior, puzzling over the problems. Rose’s uncle, Joe Meraglio, worked in a factory; he observed the factory was like schooling, a place where he was constantly learning. Life experience can teach a person a tremendous amount.

True, it would be in a different manner than a formal education would, yet still a very lofty education can be learned through hands-on actives, outside a classroom setting. Everyone is smart on their own level. However, Rose stresses the point that their “brilliance” is not recognized or, if it is, it is looked down upon by people who are more "educated. " In the same way with Rose, Bird argues that college is a waste of time because the majority of college graduates do not end up working in the same field as the major they studied.

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Students waste thousands of dollars for a college education, just to end up with their degree in their hand and with no job relating to it. Instead they have to take classes that have close to nothing to do with their major but are only taking these classes in order to fulfill a general educational requirement. They cannot transform learning experiences to jobs. Bird says, “Teachers, engineers and others I talked to said they find that on the job they rarely use what they learned in school. ” She presents this statement with the evidence of Charles Lawrence, a communications major in college and now the producer of “Kennedy & Co. ” the Chicago morning television show, says, “You have to learn all that stuff and you will never use it again. I learned my job doing it. ” Birds also shows a society's assumption that everyone is a fit for college, not knowing that it only comes naturally to a few. Another Rose and Bird’s perspective is that money can be acquired without a college education. Rose shows how Rosie and Joe make money with blue collar jobs. Rosie with excellent management ability on performance helped her earn a lot of tips and good salary.

Joe took the advantage on learning about budget and management, he became a supervisor. Those people definitively have a good income. Rosie and Joe are representative people without higher education, but they still get accomplishments and they can define who they are in society. Similarly, Bird states that college education will not help the students to make money in the future: “if making money is the only goal, college is the dumbest investment you can make”. Bird compares the money that would be spent on education versus money that is put in a bank for interest.

Even when the graduates do succeed in having good jobs, Bird says there is no evidence that the higher income is due to their college education as college attract people who are intelligent with good family backgrounds and an enterprising temperament. Most parents are convinced that sending their children to college is a good investment; their children will earn more money. There was a student that really was into cars and was also accepted to Princeton. If he decided to go to Princeton he would pay about $34,181 a year to attend, and when he got out only make $1,000 more than a high school graduate.

But if he instead took the money and invested it while working at the local car garage, by the time he was 28 he would have over $73,113. Then with that money he could open up his own business and make a lot more yearly that the average high school graduate. Although there is a huge similarity between Rose and Bird’s idea, there are some different thoughts in their essays. Rose comments that education should not only be measured by college, but he still acknowledges the value of college. He still has higher education.

He says, “I studied the humanities and later the social and psychological sciences and taught for 10 years… Then I went back to graduate school to study education and cognitive psychology and eventually became a faculty member in a school education. ” His points of view which are displayed in his essays are gained not only from his real life but also from his college. If he did not have higher education, he would not have had this essay “Blue–Collar Brilliance”. On the other hand, Bird devalues college by focusing on money. She convinces readers that college is an investment in order to make money.

Therefore, after graduation, students cannot find job and no money; it means college is not worth. She said, “When most people talk about the value of a college education, they are not talking about great books. ” She also claims that college becomes commercialized: “They sell college like soap, promoting features they think students want: innovative features, an environment conductive to meaningful personal relationships, and a curriculum so free that it doesn’t sound like college at all. ” She gives people a negative image about college.

In conclusion, success is the goals which people have set just for themselves. Not to look at anyone or make determination based on social standing. Success in a general sense means happiness. As Rosie and Joe on Mike Rose’s essay and a student who worked at the local car garage on Caroline Bird’s essay, even though they are underestimated on society, they are still success on their path. This is a proven fact that college is not the only way to success. College is just an option. People can choose it or not. It's up to them to decide what they are going to do with the opportunity they are given.

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