Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The Mind at Work
Mike Rose aptly paints of a picture of the cognitive and physical skills demanded of American workers. He uses his interviews with his mother, who worked as a waitress for over thirty-five years. He examines the wide variety of complex and varied skills and intellectual prowess required to complete her jobs. Rose also skillfully uses context in this writing in two ways. First, Rose shows how waitresses' intellectual aptitude lies in an unappreciative social surrounding. Second, Rose enlightens us as to how much unrecognized intellectual skills lie in the job. Although, previous discussions of work in restaurants have admitted the physical and social skills required, Rose feels that the intellectual skills are not appreciated.
The impressive memory expected of waitresses include intense mnemonic skills, sequence strategies for orders, remembrance of spatial layouts and personalities. Rose travels with us from the physical skills and prowess of waitresses to the job's cognitive demands., you can't help but have an increased respect for the mental part of labor as a result. It's well worth contemplating in light of the economy's ongoing evolution and the changing roles of workers.
We, as teachers, should keep in mind the cognitive skills students bring from their outside experiences. Many of these experiences may be much like waitresses' skills, unrecognized as having any intellectual worth by society at large. We need to push ourselves to see beyond both our own, and society's reductive idea of intelligence in order to truly see the mind at work in a new light.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think that that was Rose Rose's mission too- to show that waitresses and servers have brains too, and that they use their minds to the fullest extent. We (I am using "we" in reference to all of us) tend to look down on waiters and waitresses, especially if they are older. We think that they maybe were not "smart" enough to go to college and get a "real" job. Rose's testimony tell the true story- that working as a waitress is a calling, a career that can be perfected and is rewarding.
We can use both our experiences and our personal feelings guide us as we become teachers. Not to assume anything about our students and the fine, intricate art of multitasking. We could learn a lot from these so-called "uneducated servers"!
I agree with the point of having people not respecting the skill set it takes to be a waitress.A job has such an important part of how on person percieves another. I have found that when I meet a new person at a party or a bar they always ask you "what you do for a living." The answer that you give make up what people think about you even before they get to know you. For many people they think a job working as a waitress is a job that does not take much intellect. I agree that people should respect the outside experiences of others and not to judge them. As teachers we should find a way to use the skill set developed from outside experences into the classroom.
Your point about the changing role of the worker is important. With so much emphasis on the information economy and so called knowledge workers, we forget what knowledge work the foot soldiers of life have.
Post a Comment