On (Not) Getting By in America

Tomorrow begins my week of teaching 101 all on my own (well, I have taught on my own twice already this semester, but not for a week straight). I'm really looking forward to it, so much so that I'll probably spend too much time preparing to teach and not enough time preparing for the classes in which I'm a student. At least in Milton we're starting our "Paradise Lost Month" this week, and I've read that monstrous poem in its entirety fairly recently. I think a lot of it will come back to me when I look back over it. Anyway, back to teaching.

We're going to discuss low-wage work tomorrow. I had the students read an essay called "The Working Life of the Waitress" by Mike Rose and an excerpt from Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed (it's the chapter on working at Walmart). The Rose piece is really interesting. He builds a case of the complex cognitive and physical skills one must master in order to be a waitress and objectively, but convincingly, argues that much of the work deemed "unskilled labor" is actually highly skilled work. He uses a mix of personal interviews, scientific data, and current literature on the topic of work to make a really compelling case. I want my students to see how he utilizes different types of research and maintains an objective tone throughout his essay. These elements make the piece credible, and I want them pick up some of these writing tricks for their upcoming research papers.

The Ehrenreich, I must say, doesn't impress me from an argumentative standpoint. Her argument is inductive, she has an agenda, she doesn't pull back from her goal of exposing the seedy underbelly of American low-wage jobs. And I appreciate that. I love Nickel and Dimed.
I think the immersion-investigation Ehrenreich does is interesting, important, shocking, and horrifying. But I don't think she's fair enough in letting the facts speak for themselves or letting her audience come to terms with their own opinions and ideas. In a lot of ways, her argument brow beats you into agreeing with her-- Absolutely no one can be happy working at Walmart, all middle management is corrupt--and I don't think taking from your audience the power to choose what they believe works to establish credibility. Call me old fashioned.

Regardless of my criticism, I still love the book, and I agree with a lot of what it argues. I've worked many (many, many) low wage jobs, and I have seen first hand what it's like for someone with adult responsibilities struggling to make it on $7.00 and hour. And that's the point I want to drive home to my students: that there are so many people in the workforce, especially in service jobs, who we depend on daily, and they aren't making a living wage. There is a gross discrepancy between the value of ones job and how much one is valued at their job.
End moralizing teacher talk.


P.S.--Hey Amanda, remember the time we saw Barb speak in Pocatello and she said "if you're against gay marriage, then I urge you, do not marry a gay person"? Those were the days :-)