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Some Lessons From The Assembly Line.

Braaksma, Andrew

Newsweek. 9/12/2005, Vol. 146 Issue 11, p17-17. 1p. 1 Color Photograph.

Article

COLLEGE students INDUSTRIAL workers APPRENTICES OCCUPATIONS COLLEGE environment

UNITED States

Describes the author's experiences with summer jobs and the differences with college life. Comparison of the difficulties of working 12- hour days in a factory with leisurely college life; Lessons learned about the value of education; How the author applies his factory work lessons to his college studies; Why the author chooses to work in a factory and live at home during the summer; Discussion of the value of his work experiences.

890

0028-9604

18139488

Military & Government Collection

My Turn

Some Lessons From The Assembly Line

Sweating away my summers as a factory worker makes me more than happy to hit the books. Last June, as I stood behind the bright orange guard door of the machine, listening to the crackling hiss of the automatic welders, I thought about how different my life had been just a few weeks earlier. Then, I was writing an essay about French literature to complete my last exam of the spring semester at college. Now I stood in an automotive plant in southwest Michigan, making subassemblies for a car manufacturer.

I have worked as a temp in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer since I graduated from high school, but making the transition between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o'clock each morning, where rows of hulking, spark-showering machines have replaced the lush campus and cavernous lecture halls of college life, is torture. There my time is spent stamping, cutting, welding, moving or assembling parts, the rigid work schedules and quotas of the plant making days spent studying and watching "SportsCenter" seem like a million years ago.

I chose to do this work, rather than bus tables or fold sweatshirts at the Gap, for the overtime pay and because living at home is infinitely cheaper than living on campus for the summer. My friends who take easier, part-time jobs never seem to understand why I'm so relieved to be back at school in the fall or that my summer vacation has been anything but a vacation.

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There are few things as cocksure as a college student who has never been out in the real world, and people my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. After a particularly exhausting string of 12-hour days at a plastics factory, I remember being shocked at how small my check seemed. I couldn't believe how little I was taking home after all the hours I spent on the sweltering production floor. And all the classes in the world could not have prepared me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down.

As frustrating as the work can be, the most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers at one factory told me that the unit I was working in would be shut down within six months and moved to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour.

Factory life has shown me what my future might have been like had I never gone to college in the first place. For me, and probably many of my fellow students, higher education always seemed like a foregone conclusion: I never questioned if I was going to college, just where. No other options ever occurred to me.

After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have become brutally clear. When I'm back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy re-writes seems like a cop-out after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound trite now ring true.

These lessons I am learning, however valuable, are always tinged with a sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. When fall comes around, I get to go back to a sunny and beautiful campus, while work in the factories continues. At times I feel almost voyeuristic, like a tourist dropping in where other people make their livelihoods. My lessons about education are learned at the expense of those who weren't fortunate enough to receive one. "This job pays well, but it's hell on the body," said one co-worker. "Study hard and keep reading," she added, nodding at the copy of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" I had wedged into the space next to my machine so I could read discreetly when the line went down.

My experiences will stay with me long after I head back to school and spend my wages on books and beer. The things that factory work has taught me--how lucky I am to get an education, how to work hard, how easy it is to lose that work once you have it--are by no means earth-shattering. Everyone has to come to grips with them at some point. How and when I learned these lessons, however, has inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good. Until then, the summer months I spend in the factories will be long, tiring and every bit as educational as a French-lit class.

PHOTO (COLOR): Is that all? After an exhausting string of 12-hour days, I remember being shocked at how small my check seemed

~~~~~~~~ By Andrew Braaksma

Braaksma, a junior at the University of Michigan, wrote the winning essay in our "Back To School" contest.

Copyright of Newsweek is the property of Newsweek LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

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Answer the following questions after reading the passage:

CHAPTER 7 – 8

Critical Thinking Questions

1. Given the lack of formal structure, how important do you think Gore’s informal structure becomes?

2. Is L. Gore a mechanistic or an organic organization? Support your answer with examples from the case.

3. How do you think Gore’s flat organizational structure affects innovation at the company?

Answer the follow

ing

que

stions

after reading the passage:

CHAPTER 7

8

Critical Thinking Questions

1.

Given the lack of formal structure, how important do you think Gore’s informal

structure becomes?

2.

Is L. Gore a mechanistic or an organic organization? Support your answer

with examples from the case.

3.

How do you think Gore’s flat organizational structure af

fects innovation at the

company?

Answer the following questions after reading the passage:

CHAPTER 7 – 8

Critical Thinking Questions

1. Given the lack of formal structure, how important do you think Gore’s informal

structure becomes?

2. Is L. Gore a mechanistic or an organic organization? Support your answer

with examples from the case.

3. How do you think Gore’s flat organizational structure affects innovation at the

company?

ENG 122 Summative Assessment Part One Guidelines and Rubric Feedback and Revision Reflection

Overview: In this module, you learned about some different strategies for revising your writing. In this assignment, you will review your instructor’s feedback on your writing plan and consider how you will incorporate that feedback to further develop your thoughts as you prepare to write your first draft of the critical analysis essay. Prompt: For this reflection assignment, you will make some choices about your approach to your critical analysis essay based on your understanding of revision and the feedback on your writing plan provided by your instructor. You’ll also discuss who your intended audience is and what you hope to accomplish with your essay. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Feedback and Revision Reflection: Use this reflection to gather your thoughts and determine a strategy for writing your critical analysis essay based on your instructor’s feedback on your writing plan.

A. Think about your experiences with revision in the past. What approaches to revision have worked well for you? [ENG-122-03] B. What revision strategy from the Module Five content would you like to try when revising your critical analysis essay? [ENG-122-03] C. Review your writing plan and the feedback provided by your instructor. How does this feedback influence your ideas about your selected

reading? [ENG-122-03] D. What changes will you make to your analysis now that you have received this outside feedback? [ENG-122-03]

II. Audience: Use this part of your reflection to consider your audience and purpose. A. Imagine that your essay will be read by an audience beyond your instructor. Identify an audience that might benefit from reading your essay and

describe some of this audience’s characteristics. [ENG-122-01] B. What potential challenges could you have connecting with this audience with your writing? [ENG-122-01]

C. Identify some choices you can make within your writing to connect with this audience. [ENG-122-01]

Rubric Guidelines for Submission: Save your work in a Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Then, check your writing for errors. Once you have proofread your document, submit it via the Summative Assessment Part One: Feedback and Revision Reflection link in Brightspace

Critical Elements Exemplary Proficient Needs Improvement Not Evident Value

Feedback and Revision

Reflection: Approaches to

Revision [ENG-122-03]

Meets “Proficient” criteria and cites specific, relevant examples of successful approaches (100%)

Describes previous approaches to revisions (85%)

Describes previous approaches to revisions, but response is unclear or cursory (55%)

Does not describe previous approaches to revisions (0%)

11.25

Feedback and Revision

Reflection: Revision Strategy

[ENG-122-03]

Identifies a new revision strategy to implement based on the Module Five content (100%)

Identifies a new revision strategy to implement based on the Module Five content, but response is unclear or cursory (55%)

Does not identify a new revision strategy to implement based on the Module Five content (0%)

11.25

Feedback and Revision

Reflection: Influence

[ENG-122-03]

Meets “Proficient” criteria and explanation demonstrates considerable thought and contemplation of the feedback (100%)

Explains how the feedback from the instructor influenced ideas about the selected reading (85%)

Explains how the feedback from the instructor influenced ideas about the selected reading, but response is unclear or cursory (55%)

Does not explain how the feedback from the instructor influenced ideas about the selected reading (0%)

11.25

Feedback and Revision

Reflection: Changes

[ENG-122-03]

Meets “Proficient” criteria and cites specific, relevant examples in support of the explanation (100%)

Explains how the instructor’s feedback changes the analysis (85%)

Explains how the instructor’s feedback changes the analysis, but response is unclear or cursory (55%)

Does not explain how the instructor’s feedback changes the analysis (0%)

11.25

Audience: Audience

Characteristics [ENG-122-01]

Meets “Proficient” criteria and demonstrates a sophisticated awareness of the audience’s characteristics (100%)

Identifies the essay’s audience and describes characteristics of this audience (85%)

Identifies the essay’s audience, but response is unclear, cursory, or characteristics of the audience is inaccurate (55%)

Does not identify the essay’s audience (0%)

15

Audience: Challenges

[ENG-122-01]

Meets “Proficient” criteria and demonstrates a sophisticated awareness of the challenges connecting with the audience (100%)

Identifies potential challenges in connecting with the intended audience (85%)

Identifies possible challenges in connecting with the intended audience but response is unclear or cursory (55%)

Does not identify potential challenges in connecting with the intended audience (0%)

15

Critical Elements Exemplary Proficient Needs Improvement Not Evident Value

Audience: Choices [ENG-122-01]

Meets “Proficient” criteria and provides an insightful connection between the challenges posed and strategies necessary to connect with the audience (100%)

Identifies choices that could be made within the essay to connect with the intended audience (85%)

Identifies choices that could be made within the essay to connect with the intended audience, but response is unclear or cursory (55%)

Does not identify choices that could be made within the essay (0%)

15

Articulation of Response

Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a professional and easy-to-read format (100%)

Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization (85%)

Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas (55%)

Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas (0%)

10

Total 100%

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