K R Deciding the Rest of Your Life at 18

dents are not ready, want to pursue a different path or just simply don’t want to go to college. Franklin, Zinsser, and Rose are able to connect to the reader on an almost personal level, humbly acknowledging that other careers and life paths are valid and necessary. ese three essays claim that, maybe, college isn’t exactly the intellectual wonderland society praises it to be and that it is possible to be successful and intelligent while working a blue-collar job.

Joey Franklin’ s “Working at Wendy’ s” expresses the embarrassment and shame he felt when applying for and working the night-shift at Wendy’ s while he and his wife go through college. Franklin feels as though he’ s making a “mistake” before he even “hand[s] the manager [his] résumé” because he, like many others, believed that working a blue-collar job is beneath his level of intelligence (80). Children learn this societal stigma at a young age. Franklin remembers telling his friends that his father worked as a pizza delivery man but later “wish[ed] [he] hadn’t told them anything about [his] father’ s job” because of the shame he felt knowing his father didn’t have a “real job” (83). During his time at Wendy’ s, Franklin grows to realize that many of his co-workers aren ’t there by choice. Franklin provides anecdotal stories of each of his co-workers’ hardships and personal issues that have landed them a job at Wendy’ s. Whether it be an expecting mother trying to make money to provide for her future baby or a teen boy who was kicked out of his house until he can attend military school, all of his co-workers work at Wendy’ s because they found themselves in unexpected situations, not because they are incapable of working at a “higher-level” job. When one customer assumes that Franklin is not going to college because of his job, he wants to inform this man that “[he is] on [his] way to grad school to get a Ph.D. in English literature,” that he is “in the top 5 percent of students at [his] college,” but he resorts back to his same response, knowing that this man assumes he is “another wasted life, another victim” (83). By including his credentials and the personal stories of his co-workers, Franklin is appealing to

pathos and ethos. His highly advanced degree contributes to his credibility as an author by establishing his background in English and writing while simultaneously furthering his argument that nobody is too good to work at a blue-collar job. Franklin wants the reader to sympathize with the prejudices he deals with daily from customers who have fallen victim to society’ s preconceived notion of fast-food workers. e personal stories of his co-workers work as an appeal to pathos because Franklin is providing the background of his co-workers that many assume. Franklin hopes to evoke empathy and almost make our society feel guilty about our preconceptions and our hasty judgments. Ultimately, Franklin hopes to dispel the stigma surrounding blue-collar and fastfood jobs and wants society to challenge their own presumptions and stereotypes through his use of pathos and ethos.

Today, intelligence is measured by testing scores, grades, transcripts and the amount of higher education required for a certain field of work. Intelligence is considered to be how well a student is able to regurgitate information taught through a textbook. Today, most people associate more education with more money and believe that “work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (452). Mike Rose’ s “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” questions the exact definition of intelligence. Rose claims that experience can teach more than a textbook ever will and that intelligence is more than just test scores and transcripts. Rose begins by providing his mother’ s experience of “quit[ting] school in the seventh grade to help raise her brothers and sisters” by becoming a waitress (451). He describes sitting and watching how intricate and skill-demanding being a waitress actually is. eir tips rely on forming the ability to cater to all the needs of the customers “from physiological ones, including the emotions that accompany hunger, to a sometimes complicated desire for human contact” (450). School may teach algebra and chemistry, but work teaches efficiency, communication, and problem-solving- all life-long skills that cannot be taught through school, but through experience exclusively. Rose utilizes anecdotes of his

mother and uncle to produce an ethical appeal. Using his family members’ experience working a manual job contributes to his credibility as an author and furthers his claim. e experiences his mother and uncle have had directly contribute to his argument and are a prime example of the successes blue-collar jobs can offer. Rose is promoting that different jobs are intellectually challenging in diverse ways; that the different cognitive tools required for different jobs don’t equate to lesser work. A manual worker’ s training “enhances knowledge and informs perception” in a constantly changing environment rather than learning in a classroom setting and not being able to apply the knowledge to a real-world situation (455). Rose is not claiming that blue-collar work is superior to white-collar work, but is hoping to eradicate stereotypes surrounding blue-collar employment. Rose believes that the majority of adults value book smarts over experience and should be more accepting of different forms of intellect. Rose says that the “affirmation of diverse intelligence is not a retreat to a softhearted definition of the mind,” but “is to take seriously the concept of cognitive variability” (456). Ultimately, Rose uses an ethical appeal to develop his credibility and to inspire a more welcoming and understanding view of what is now a hierarchy of jobs.

Societal pressures to pursue higher education are more prevalent than ever. All of this pressure stems from the “clammy grip of the future,” the “if I don’t get in my life is over” mentality (438). e constant “economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure” can be too much for most students to overcome and pursue the path they want (438). William Zinsser’ s “College Pressures” examines this slippery slope fallacy that has a tight grip on too many high school students. e college admittance process makes students believe that the only way to be successful is to get an edge on the student sitting next to them. at there must be something unique and better about them that will get them ahead. is harmful mentality leaves students constantly unsatisfied; making them dwell on

the downfalls and brush past the successes. Zinsser knows this mentality all-too-well as he taught writing at Yale University and was the master of Branford College. Zinsser says that “one of the few rights that America does not proclaim is the right to fail,” that the “young are growing up old,” being forced to choose their life path and where it ends before it even begins (438). In a world where “A is for admirable and B is for borderline,” the self-induced pressure on students is severe because the “transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security” (438). In today’ s world “looking very good is no longer good enough” in order to ensure financial security and success (438). Many students believe they will never be good enough, never living up to their own standards, let alone other’ s expectations as well. Zinsser uses his credentials as an ethical appeal to describe the thoughts and feelings of students he has taught and advised. It is evident that Zinsser is deeply affected by the stresses of his students and the whole college system as it is devised today. Seeing these struggles first-hand as a college educator and administrator has changed Zinsser’ s whole outlook on societal pressures and how it relates to higher education. Pressures to pursue higher education are harmful to all students and to society. ese pressures are an excuse to justify prejudices towards those who do not pursue higher education and choose another career path. Zinsser claims that not only is the college process harmful to students but society as a whole.

All three of these essays reflect on the dystopian world our society is becoming. To ask 18-year-olds to choose the path of the rest of their life before it has even begun is obviously, very stressful and exhausting. To most students, however, pleasing parents, peers, and teachers is more important than pleasing themselves. On top of pressures from others, college students are forced to absorb tens of thousands of dollars of debt owed to billion-dollar corporations that will cause them to be “already behind as [they] go forth” (439). e stigmas surrounding other career paths are also a factor that holds many students back from pursuing what

they truly want to do, whether that be a trade school, community college, a gap year or no further schooling at all. All three authors attempt to refute the stereotypes through ethos and pathos. By providing personal success stories, Franklin, Rose, and Zinsser are encouraging students to pursue their passions and are advocating for change in our judgmental and stress-filled society. By using pathos, the authors hope to provoke empathy and challenge readers to examine their own downfalls when it comes to making hasty generalizations and the use of ethos contributes to their credibility as an author. ese three authors are promoting the change in our society that is so desperately needed. In a world filled with anxious and depressed teens, there needs to be a reevaluation of the college and career system as it stands today. All types of work contribute to society in some way, no matter what the salary is. No person working a blue-collar job should feel ashamed for bettering themselves and doing what they have to do to pursue their goals, because most people who believe they are too good for this type of work have benefitted from their employment in some way. Students are trapped in a capitalist, for-profit society that capitalizes on outcomes but never the journey. e success at all costs mentality is a cause of self-hatred, stress, and the rising rates of mental illness in teens. e workload, debt, and life adjustment that comes with college is something that not everyone is capable of taking on and that should be acceptable. Many students crumble under the pressure of choosing their life path and just choose what their others think is best for them. Americans need to make a conscious effort to eradicate the preconceptions surrounding plans after high school by valuing all types of work for what they contribute to our world, not how long it takes to get there.

e Reconstruction of Social Perceptions of Stereotyped People

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One of the most controversial and grossly abused devices in the inventory of humanity’ s perceptive toolkit is the stereotype. It is convenient, available, and often reinforced by the human’ s own biases through which their perceptions are molded. Much like other tools awaiting use in the human psyche, the stereotype is ancient and primitive; It needs naught the batteries of logic to function, as it is no more than a crude contortion of wood and rock requiring only the emotional strength of the user to construct an assessment, belief, or pyre of ignorance. However, as the utility of a tool is altered in harmony with its demands, the crudeness of the stereotype can be replaced, revamped, and reintroduced with the proper direction. Zora Neale Hurston, Nancy Mairs, and Brent Staples offer tutorials on this revamping, within their essays “How it Feels to be Colored Me”, “On Being A Cripple” and “Black Men in Public Space” . ey address the inaccuracy of stereotypes, and attempt to redefine—and in some sense eliminate—the mass perception of and regarding certain stereotypes. rough similar installments of rhetoric such as appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos, along with similar organiza-