Zehara Eckert
9/4/11
Why School?
I found the “hand work” versus “brain work” assumptions that the author Mike Rose pointed out very interesting. Our society seems to perceive a conflict with what is considered common sense versus schooling (book learning), or practical life. In one of my favorite lines in this book, Rose stated, “It took a guy with a college degree to screw this up and a guy with a high school degree to fix it.” (Rose, 67). This quote describes very well the idea of hands-on versus schoolhouse knowledge, reminding us of old beliefs when people had a bias against people who worked with their hands and thought of them as being ignorant and illiterate. Rose is trying to reinforce the idea of street-smart versus book smart.
Rose made an interesting point when he discussed the ridiculous distinction people often make between “hand work” versus “brain work”, as if working with your hands were mindless. Rose’s point ties in closely with professor Lynn’s class. For example, our “wake up” portraits required us to use our hands to do the majority of the assignment, obvious reasons being that it’s art related. Working with our hands to do this assignment involves our brain in many ways, not just for physical work and dexterity. Our knowledge, intelligence, and judgment also play important parts. Before my partner drew the outline portraits of me, I thought about it and imagined my finished product. I had to think about how big I wanted my portrait, its shape, and the messages or ideas I wanted to convey in the piece. As a result of my thinking, I decided to do an artistic pose rather than just doing an outline of my facial profile because my passion for dance was a theme I wanted to show to my audience. Then I had to think about how I was going to integrate my passion for dance with the concepts of medical school, becoming a doctor and saving patients one life at a time. How could that all fit in my art piece in a way that was appealing and intriguing to my audience? I had to select images, drawings, and words to use and determine, if I was going to be repetitive with certain objects or words to create emphasis. So was this hands-on assignment work that could be labeled “mindless?” No, in fact it engaged my mind tremendously. I had to use mental skills to shape the ideas and put my thoughts into action, just as I used physical skill to do the artwork. I had to plan my energy and efficiency in order to meet the deadline for the assignment.
To conclude, I agree with Rose that people often make ridiculous assumptions about hands-on versus schoolhouse knowledge, and this flaw is limiting our society’s ability to put the full capabilities of all people to work. Our attitudes toward one another affects the way we function in the society we make up and also our vision and ideals of the kind of education we make available.
Brittany Philpot
ReplyDeleteThe reason why a person wakes up in the morning is usually to have a productive day. Either for studying to have an education, going to work to provide for their family, or to enjoy the time we have to spend with the people we love. The list goes on. In “Why School,” Rose points out that our education is not hands on. We have a vast amount of knowledge but we do not know how to apply it to our job effectively. Hands-on work seems to be looked down upon as a negative thing, “And the countervailing aristocratic streak¬¬-one that goes back to the early days of the republic- is all too familiar; the bias against those who work with their hands as ignorant and illiterate (67).” To me, working with your hands enables you to learn more and be more proficient with your job. If you are constantly doing something, then that person becomes an expert. If this idea was incorporated into school, many concepts may be easier to understand. Even if a person knew everything in a book and understood it all, but couldn’t apply it to the world then there is no point in this knowledge. Having the knowledge for doing a job correct and the best way they have learned how seems more valuable. Rose explains that there is no faking it in the real world, “There’s no faking it with machinery, or building a cabinet, or handling a rush in a restaurant (69).” The only way to improve yourself is to be hands on in life and try new things and learn from your experiences so you can do better next time. When I wake up in the morning I hope to learn what I need when I graduate. My goal to become a doctor does need a great deal of knowledge but the hands on experiences are even more important as well.
When Rose discusses the standards and expectations in what students should be learning, I was interested in the story he describes about Vince. Comparing how much he learned between the two different teaching styles in the same English class shows that it is not what you learn but how it betters yourself and allows for you to grow as a person. The first teacher just judged him and didn’t give him any insight into how he could improve his style. The second teacher he had explained to him what he could do to enhance his work and improve his writing style. When narrowing down what a student needs to learn, there should be some incorporation of how the student learns there information. Instead of having a bunch of strict rules and regulations that make the student feel worse about their work, there should be a teaching method where the student feels free to make mistakes and learn from them. Vince gave up on his English class because he didn’t feel good enough. This type of strict enforcement may be more damaging than a good thing. Of course, there have to be some types of regulations to make sure the student learns everything to know of the subject but the way it is presented should be more of a learning experience. Just as Rose was saying earlier in the book, about how working hands on allows for you to learn more about what you are doing. In education, there should be more of a trial and error so the mistakes you make won’t be repeated when you have graduated and gone into the real world. Instead of just being told you are wrong and not having any reasoning behind that answer.
Viviana Parra
ReplyDeleteAfter thinking about “brain work” vs. “hand work” and how society looks at the difference, there is a very big gap. Schools and society look down upon workers that are doing hand work until they have to do it for themselves. Once people are in the position to actually do hand work do they realize how much thinking and prep actually goes into it. I have personal experience of how hand work jobs are looked down upon. I grew up going to a small catholic school in a very low income area. My classmates and I were constantly being told to better ourselves and get out of that area. Never once were we taught to think about different options of doing that. As it mentions in the book, “we tend to label entire categories of work and the people associated with them” (pg 75). The first careers mentioned to me were always doctor and lawyer. I have nothing against those wonderful occupations they are simply the most stereotypical well educated person. While the people working at the taco shop down the street from my house could perhaps be more imaginative or quick thinkers.
The emphasis of how difficult hand work can be has direct correlation with our wake up project. I had my images laid down and started to try and think of an organized and pretty way to place them. It became difficult because some of the pictures were too big, the colors did not look good with one another, and some pictures wouldn’t flow if I placed them a certain way. There were so many thoughts running through my head as I realized how difficult this project was actually going to be. You cannot simply place pictures that you like down unto this outline of yourself. You have to put them in a way that makes sense and looks nice. Most schools do not see an importance in this kind of work but I am sure I will be faced with situations like this in the future when something not only has t work but be aesthetically pleasing as well.
In chapter eight while Rose explains the importance of literature it really starts to make sense to me. That education and subject matters can come to life when they are related to people with personal accounts and stories. Reading can allow a person to more deeply understand any subject matter that they may question. Rose also speaks about how important it is to find literature that suits a class and will provide students with and interesting way to expand what they are learning. This mirrors our art project a little bit because we are using it like writing. We are using images that represent words that we can later tell someone. It is a way of expression that is similar to writing just a bit more hands on.