five page essay

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Menghuan Fan

Eng 100 section LL

Paper 2 final draft

March, 3rd

Working with Hands

Earning a decent living is something that everybody in the society desires to have and

maintain while they grow up. However, the world is dynamic with a lot of economic challenges

and this demands that by the time a young person is attaining the legal age to have the right

skills, mentality, attitude, and perception about life and work. There are students who are lucky

enough to have sharp minds and interest for them to rely on knowledge work. Matthew Crawford

states in his article “The Case for Working with Your Hands” that we all should learn a skill

even if we are going to be a knowledge worker. And going to college like our parents want is not

our only choice. However, Barbara Ehrenreich claims in her article “ It Is Expensive to Be Poor”

that she disagrees with the people who believe that poor people are poor because of their bad

behaviors and attitude. She thinks that poor people who work with hands have no other choices

because no matter how hard they work, they are still struggling to earn a living. Additionally,

the fact that students in high school are the right formation stage means that public high school

education, which has been made mandatory in almost all countries across the globe, has an

important role to play in helping students who do not want to do knowledge work. Public high

school can help students realize that knowledge work is not their only choice and that working

with hands is also very challenging. Also, they can provide students who do not want to be a

knowledge worker in some classes in the trades.

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Mentoring high schoolers on the importance of working with hands and giving them the

idea of knowledge work is not their only choice is one role that can be played by public high

school. Most people, especially parents, nowadays believe that jobs that are done by hands are

low-paying and inferior. They don't want their children to do any jobs that’s working with hand

even though those children might be in love with this kind of job. According to Crawford, a

strong emphasis is placed on why people should learn skills that only hands are needed. In his

article, he claims that “those who end up making big decisions that affect all of us don't seem to

have much sense of their own fallibility, and of how badly things can go wrong even with the

best of intentions” (p10, Crawford). Those gifted students do not have a great intention of how

things would happen during their careers. Because they never learned how to face failure like

those who learned a skill that requires them to test over and over again after they fail. Public high

schools from the first year should couch students on the benefits of relying on hand skills as

compared to knowledge skills for the purpose of changing the already present negative attitude.

Public high schools should let students know that if students are unwilling to do and rely on

knowledge to work, knowledge work will not be their only choice. and working by hand will not

make them poor. Doing what you love is the right choice. Ehrenreich states that “I was also

dismayed to find that in some ways, it is actually more expensive to be poor than not poor” (p3,

Ehrenreich). However, if you do hand-on work without skill, it will be hard to live a good life.

Because those jobs are normally low-paying. You will need more money for your daily life

because you cannot afford your household furniture. Learning a skill is very important for those

students who do not want to work with only their knowledge because a hand-on job with skill

cannot be replaced by anyone who does not know the skill. This means that public high schools

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have to make students who do not want to do knowledge work understand that there is no other

shortcut other than facing the reality of life by engaging in hand work to improve their livelihood

and thereby avoiding poverty.

Public high school should demonstrate to both students and parents that even in hand-on

work, there are equally challenges. Hence, students should perceive working with hands in

self-employment is also a good option. And people should treat those workers the same as

treating knowledge workers. This is a critical and important role that public high schools should

play taking advantage of the large number of students that the learning institutions have.

According to Crawford, being in work that working with hands is not smooth sailing as many

people perceive and that there are as many risks as those involved in knowledge work. He states

that “For me, at least, there is more real thinking going on in the bike shop than there was in the

think tank” (p5, Crawford). When the mechanic fixes a bike, he has to really think about the right

way of fixing it. And there are always new problems that come up. sometimes they may never

even see those problems before. So, a mechanic needs to combine all the knowledge he has to

find out a new way. In the think tank, there are too many solutions, and people need to follow

many rules. This will cause someone cannot fully think about a concept. People believe that only

knowledge work is challenging enough to be worth trying. All kinds of jobs are challenging.

Working requires a lot, such as someone's energy and time. In the article by Ehrenreich, she

stated that “What I discovered is that in many ways, these jobs are a trap: They pay so little that

you cannot accumulate even a couple of hundred dollars to help you make the transition to a

better-paying job” (p3, Ehrenreich). There are jobs that need people to pay their full attention to

and still being low-paying jobs. Those workers have no spare time and have no money to help

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them find a better job. This means that in both knowledge work and working with hand, there are

equally challenges. They work as hard as they can, they should be compensated fairly. And

public high schools should make students aware of this fact. This being the reality of life,

students who do not want to do knowledge work would start perceiving the positive side of

working with hands and start finding the skill that they would like to learn.

The public high school also has the role of giving students who do not want to do

knowledge work with the practical side of working with hands. This is an important role that can

help such students to learn and understand what to expect instead of living under the wrong

assumptions and misleading expectations that only knowledge work is acceptable and suitable

for them. According to the article by Crawford, it was easy for the mentioned student to cope

since high school and college; he had been trained to work with his hands. For instance, in his

article, he stated that “I worked on cars throughout high school and college, and one of my early

jobs was at a Porsche repair shop. Now I was rediscovering the intensely absorbing nature of the

work, and it got me thinking about possible livelihoods” (p3, Crawford). When the author really

found an interest in repairing cars, he started rethinking about using his interest to help him live a

better life. When we truly find out what we like, there is always a way to make benefit from our

interest, and working with things we like will make us much happier. Without experiencing

different skills, it’s hard for students to really find what they like. This is the same sentiment

echoed by Ehrenreich that she claims that “Welfare ‘reform’ was the answer and it was intended

not only to end financial support for imperiled families but also to cure the self-induced ‘culture

of poverty’ that was supposedly at the root of their misery” (p2, Ehrenreich). Poor people are

poor is not because of their own behavior or attitude. Even if they have a good attitude, no matter

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how hard they work, without help, it’s hard for poor people to get out of poverty. And for those

poor people, any kind of help would be useful. Public high schools need a total reform in the

curriculums they offer students who do not want to do knowledge work. They need to provide

students with some courses that can teach students useful skills. The curriculum for such students

should be one based on practical skills that students might be interested in the purpose of getting

acquainted with the roles that they would have to play after completing high school either in

college or at work.

In conclusion, public high schools should play a few roles when it comes to preparing

students who do not want to do knowledge work. The public high schools need to show students

the importance of work that requires skills and also demonstrate the importance and practicality

of hands-on work in life. Public high school should also provide students some courses of

learning different skills. So that students can have the opportunity to get in touch with some jobs

that they might want to work on in the future. This is an atmosphere that can help change the

students and gradually society’s opinion of working using hands. Both knowledge work and

working with hands need to be respected because they both require hard work. And working with

hands also need knowledge that is related to their own working field. public high school should

also encourage students to engage in working with hands instead of relying on white-collar jobs

and gradually society would start perceiving the positive side of working with hands. I hope that

by playing these roles, students who desire to do knowledge work and those who do not want

would have equal opportunities in life-based on high school education, coaching, and advice

together with the support from the government and public high schools. With students getting

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into white-collar jobs as well as others in working with hands, many people will be involved in

gainful employment thereby getting rid of poverty permanently.