COMM 2101 Mike Rowe
COMM 2101 MW 8am
Reflection Paper
Ebbie Belles
The phrase “work smart, not hard” has been posted in schools for decades in order to promote education. What Mike Rowe states is that this is putting a negative perspective on jobs that you have to work hard at and get your hands a little dirty for. Some of the jobs that are looked at as dirty actually make more money than someone sitting in a desk job with a bachelor’s degree from some overpriced college. He states that the money we put into education and especially college education is not at all being put back into play fairly. By that I mean, we are all clearly choosing the education route but we are doing it in a smarter way than students that chose to go to ‘big league’ schools. Those schools and their outrageous prices cause adults that graduate from their programs to not even make as much money as they spent getting that degree. I love his example of the welder. They are few and far between to come by but everything in the room you’re sitting in right now requires it. That’s a powerful statement. It affected me in a different way because my uncle, before he passed, was a welder. He worked at home out of his garage whenever he felt like it and made more than anyone ever knew. No one really knew how much he made until he passed. My entire family was shocked! We weren’t shocked that he was smart enough to make that kind of money. We were shocked that he could make that money without a degree and without a ‘clean’ job. So in essence my uncle worked smart AND hard which is exactly what Mike Rowe wants to instill in future and current generations. There is too much emphasis on education and not enough in work ethic. Therefore, I completely agree with what he was saying in this interview about education and work ethic and applaud him for setting a different standard for future generations with his slightly edited and improved “work smart AND hard” campaign.
Reflection Paper
Ebbie Belles
The phrase “work smart, not hard” has been posted in schools for decades in order to promote education. What Mike Rowe states is that this is putting a negative perspective on jobs that you have to work hard at and get your hands a little dirty for. Some of the jobs that are looked at as dirty actually make more money than someone sitting in a desk job with a bachelor’s degree from some overpriced college. He states that the money we put into education and especially college education is not at all being put back into play fairly. By that I mean, we are all clearly choosing the education route but we are doing it in a smarter way than students that chose to go to ‘big league’ schools. Those schools and their outrageous prices cause adults that graduate from their programs to not even make as much money as they spent getting that degree. I love his example of the welder. They are few and far between to come by but everything in the room you’re sitting in right now requires it. That’s a powerful statement. It affected me in a different way because my uncle, before he passed, was a welder. He worked at home out of his garage whenever he felt like it and made more than anyone ever knew. No one really knew how much he made until he passed. My entire family was shocked! We weren’t shocked that he was smart enough to make that kind of money. We were shocked that he could make that money without a degree and without a ‘clean’ job. So in essence my uncle worked smart AND hard which is exactly what Mike Rowe wants to instill in future and current generations. There is too much emphasis on education and not enough in work ethic. Therefore, I completely agree with what he was saying in this interview about education and work ethic and applaud him for setting a different standard for future generations with his slightly edited and improved “work smart AND hard” campaign.