Rejecting Stereotypes on the Lower Class PDF

Preview

Summary

Professor Adamo
How Upper/Lower class views importance of education
-Mike Rose’s Blue-Collar Brilliance: Blue collar workers with skills without formal education
-Brent Staples’ Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s: article highlights advantages/privilege for upper class ivy...

Description

Aduna 1

Erin Aduna (21606786) Professor Adamo College Writing I-105:96 30 September 2016 Rejecting Stereotypes on the Lower Class A person’s social status greatly influences the choices they make regarding education. This is due to what the individual may view as a priority: working or education. Upper-class people have the money to go to school but as for the lower-class people, education is not guaranteed due to their inability to pay for tuition. Some individuals may or may not even be willing to receive an education, regardless of the costs. Social class can influence a person’s views on whether or not education is necessary; for example, it is common for lower class individuals to see education as a waste of money. Choosing work over education seems more practical to them but nowadays, people tend to look down on those who had not received formal education. On the other hand, the upper class may see education as means of preserving their image or status, two things that are prioritized today. Despite the varying values of education between the social classes, having an education will influence the way people are treated. People tend to look down on those who did not attend college, and those people are usually the lower class; many assume that they lack intelligence or motivation to work hard. This is an unfortunate, but very much true fact. Because of these misconceptions, education is valuable, determining how much respect people get. A degree today grants a person respect, but lower class individuals are not always able to obtain that; they should not be looked down upon because of their lack of

Aduna 2

formal education. We must value the lower class by rejecting stereotypes, highlighting the skills they had obtained without having proper resources at school or degrees instead. A person of the working class may not have received the same education as a businessman, but he/she should not be underestimated since working class individuals adapt and often learn valuable skills. Those valuable skills that they learn from each job they get are similar to skills a scholar would have developed over their years in college. If both ‘educated’ and ‘non-educated’ individuals possess similar intellectual skills such as memorization or debating for example, then one of the two should not be looked down upon. The only difference between non-educated and educated individuals is the degree hanging up somewhere on the wall in a modern condo. In Mike Rose’s Blue-Collar Brilliance , he utilizes his mother as a prime example of an intelligent woman who gained intellectual skills without having to go to a well-known university. Rose’s mother was a waitress and it was a job that people would not find respectable due to the reinforced stereotype that waitressing is for the unintelligent. Rose explains that waitressing is not only physically demanding, but mentally demanding as well. Upon studying blue-collar workers, he came to realize that waitressing allows an individual to have memorization skills, social skills, and work efficiency skills: “Waiting  on seven to nine tables, each with two to six customers, Rosie devised memory strategies so that she could remember who ordered what” (Rose 1034). It is difficult to keep track of so many tables comprised of several different orders of food and drink, yet Rosie was able to easily k eep track of them all by using memorization strategies. That type of strategy is applied by formally educated individuals: students studying for exams at college, nurses who are getting ready to assist doctors, or for lawyers even who must know the law by heart. The previous quote affirms the fact that despite

Aduna 3

being a blue-collar worker who dropped out seventh grade, Rosie is an intelligent person. If blue-collar workers were able to get a formal education, they could easily adapt to the learning environment at universities as they do at their jobs to become successful, respected people of society. Graduates of prestigious universities are placed on a pedestal for being able to earn a degree, but hard work is not always the driving force of their accomplishments. They are never frowned upon because people often think, surely, it was their intelligence that allowed them to excel.. . There are a few people in Ivy League schools who were able to obtain their success through less than honorable means, so why are they still being treated better than the lower class when they are not fully working for the higher grade? This is not to say that people attending Ivy League schools should be looked down upon; it is just unfair to base judgement on lower class individuals who did not attend school. People  should focus on what the working class accomplished without f inancial stability and the opportunity to learn at the best universities, giving them the same amount of respect. In Brent Staples’ Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s , he exposes the fact that formal education can be superficial nowadays since students are able to obtain their degrees through means aside from rigorous studying: “The evidence suggest that students and parents are demanding--and getting--what they think of as their money’s worth,” (Staples 1067). This suggests that a student can obtain higher scores without working as hard; it seems that having enough money can grant the gift of respect and high status. Those students did not work as hard, yet society smiles at them anyway while frowning at the people who work honest jobs without degrees. Is this not unfair to anyone? The upper class should not continue to make assumptions that the lower class are not smart individuals when

Aduna 4

people of their own class are arguing and paying for their degrees instead of working hard to get them. An ideal education is not always available to the lower class which is why they are unable to easily move up the social ladder, but they still manage to survive without a degree. It would not make sense to assume that they are lazy, lacking the motivation to try and become successful themselves because they face many disadvantages, one of them being financial stability. If anything, the lower class should be commended for taking on these obstacles instead of being looked down upon based on factors that they do not have control over. I have family members who now live in the states (coming from the Philippines) who are stuck being a part of the lower class. People often see my aunt as yet another uneducated immigrant, deciding to move to the US to steal resources without making an effort to contribute. Because they dropped out of high school to work and support the family, they do not have a degree. This is crucial today to get a well-paying job so they are forced to take low-paying, physically demanding jobs that barely allows them to get by. My aunt works as a waitress so she learned how to be incredibly efficient when it comes to time management and her husband works as a delivery man for Chinese restaurants. Oftentimes, he uses memorization to pick the best routes to his destination when there is traffic. These skills are proof of their intellectual ability that can be used for much higher-paying jobs, but they are restricted because a degree today is solid proof that someone is intelligent. Despite being discriminated against based on their class and lack of formal education, they work hard to provide for their family to the best of their ability; that should be enough to prove that they do not deserve to be treated as unintelligent, lazy people.

Aduna 5

Depending on a person’s social class, education can either be a necessity or a waste of time and money. Whether or not the person decides to pursue a degree or job should not be deciding factors when it comes to judging a person’s intelligence or potential. It is important to understand that the way others obtain educational skills is not black and white in order to prevent and eventually stop negative stereotypes from circulating. Blue Collar workers are individuals who obtain educational skills that their profession demands which is an impressive feat in itself, yet they are not given as much credit. Instead of being devalued, they should be held up to the same respect as doctors and lawyers. Within communities and schools, people should educate others on the important roles the lower class people take on in society along with their intellectual capacity. As long as people are aware of their worth, society as a whole will have a better perspective of what each class goes through and prejudices will be set aside.

Aduna 6

Works Cited Rose, Mike. “Hidden Intellectualism.” Everyone’s An Author: With Readings , MSU ed. Ed. Andrea Lunsford, et al. New York: W.W. Norton, 2017. 1034. Print. Staples, Brent. “Why  Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s.”  Everyone’s An Author: With Readings , MSU ed. Ed. Andrea Lunsford, et al. New York: W.W. Norton, 2017. 1067. Print....