Braaksma's Essay Some Lessons From The Assembly Line

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In a world where such uncertainty comes in to play regarding a college education and any other type of blue collar jobs, one college student speaks clearly on the hardship of factory work in "Some Lessons From The Assembly Line" by A. Braaksma (2005) This essay is about a University of Michigan student who has to work for his money for schooling purposes. In his essay, he describes the reasons he chose to work at a car manufacturing facility versus working for stores such as Gap (Braaksma, 2005). He stated: "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." (Braaksma, 2005).
In this specific essay, the true goal of the author was to state how he learned such a valuable lesson with regard to his education. Although this is very much the same opinion I had previously had, I can now look at it through his eyes, without thinking he was being condescending. It seems that he had learned a very valuable lesson in getting a job in the real, working blue collar world, and it has made him appreciate his opportunities in life that were being afforded to him.
Braaksma was discussing in his essay how working in a factory had …show more content…

In his conclusion, he reveals to us, “…the summer months I spend in the factories will be long, tiring and every bit as educational as a French-lit class” (Braaksma, 2005). Braaksma seemed to make his key point that this was a learning process for him and that he was very open-minded to what had occurred during his summer months at a factory. Further Braaksma admits that he has learned valuable lessons while on the factory floor. (Braaksma, 2005). However, by Braaksma comparing such differences between the two, he had made an informed decision to continue on with his studies, and to appreciate his advantages of an