![]() Louis for a computer-programming job and joined Mensa because he wanted to meet people, and-his theory aside-he hates bars. Scott orders a beer he has a mock theory about drinking being good for your brain, because the cells you’re killing off are the weak ones. He blinks once and says that would have been a Sunday. “Tell Jack your birth date,” somebody urges, so I do. Next comes Jack Lippold, an engineer with a quiet, quirky sense of humor. Notepad, lost look-not exactly a brilliant deduction we’ll give her half a point. WHEN SCOTT AND LAURA D EWEESE walk into Pi, Laura recognizes me first. ![]() One, I’m not sure she’ll take it as a compliment. I start to ask a mild-looking sixtyish woman if she’s here for the Mensa meeting and stop short. In other words, they’re scared they’re not smart enough to keep up with you. They decide you’re too smart for the job, you’ll get bored, you’ll move on. Employers get intimidated, members explained to me. Or something to never, ever mention on a résumé. But for members, it’s an identity, a validation of their intelligence, a way to meet other bright people. Most people who qualify for Mensa (you have to score in the top 2 percent on one of the club’s carefully selected tests) don’t join. Others shine a single laser beam, brilliant in their field and clueless about the rest of the world. They think abstractly, and for some that means fluidly, sliding all over the game board. They like questions they have to ponder, puzzles and problems that are hard to solve. They talk fast, too-have to, one guy told me, or you get interrupted. Even the most painfully introverted talk a lot, once they’re in their comfort zone. Strongly opinionated, they formulate theories about the world. What am I looking for-egg-shaped heads? Thus far, I’ve reached only a few sloppily unscientific generalizations: Mensans tend not to be trendy. LOUIS AREA MENSA HAPPY HOUR (this one’s at Pi) and scan each arrival’s face. New York & London: Norton & Company, Inc.I SHOW UP FOR THE MONTHLY ST. Walters (Eds.), Everyone’s An Author (pp. Ultimately, Rose sums up the heart of the matter by urging his readers to appreciate the blue-collar brilliance that he has spent his essay describing because, “This is a model of the mind that is worthy of a democratic society” (para. “When we devalue the full range of everyday cognition, we offer limited educational opportunities and fail to make fresh and meaningful instructional connections among disparate kinds of skill and knowledge” (Rose, para. Perhaps more importantly, he points out why this matters so much. Much more than missing opportunities to acknowledge both skill and knowledge amongst blue-collar workers, Rose argues that society is actually “affect the work creates in the future” (para. By making this statement he indicates that there is an overarching argument that he is passionate about. Near the end of his essay he declares, “If we think that whole categories of people-identified by class or occupation-are not that bright, then we reinforce social separations and cripple our ability to talk across cultural divides” (Rose, para. Rose is arguing that we are perpetuating a divided society with the oversight of what he calls, “diverse intelligence” (para. ![]() Although he clearly points out that the cognitive skills that these workers bring to their jobs deserve recognition, the author is driving at a broader argument. paint-and-body department during his 33 years with that company (para. He notes that his uncle Joe’s formal education ended with the eighth grade yet he became a supervisor of a G. Rose further develops this theme with examples from the working career of his uncle Joe Meraglio. Multi-tasking, memorizing orders, and skillfully handling the diverse emotions of both customer and staff are a few of the cognitive demands that he highlights in her work (Rose, para. Rosie, as Rose refers to his mother, utilized a broad range of knowledge and skills to effectively manage the physical and mental demands of her job. He illustrates his mother’s brilliance in her work by opening his essay with detailed examples of the cognitive demands placed upon her in her waitress jobs. Like the title of his essay suggests, Rose acknowledges the physical labor required of blue collar workers but seeks to refute the “belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (para. Mike Rose (2013), in his essay Blue Collar Brilliance, presents a fascinating picture of the varied demands placed on much of America’s working class.
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