Mike Rose Summary Chapter 7 (Nicole Kiley)

“The Dumb Jock Theory” is one of the examples that Mike Rose talks about when reading the 7th chapter in his book, The Mind at Work. It is when people see a strong football player, they assume that because he can play the sport well means he can’t be smart. There are many smart athletes and some people don’t realize that and it shocks them because they have it in their mind to think of it in that way. There are times when a football player assumes that because he’s on a football team that he doesn’t need to do well in school. Everyone just has that imprinted in their mind because that is what they were told their entire life.
Mike Rose begins this chapter by thinking about history and how people would just look at someone and assume the career they had. If someone would see a tall, strong man walking down the street, they would assume that the only profession he could have was a construction worker or worked in the mines. A really good example could be when there was slavery. All white men and women would just think that because someone was black that they couldn’t have any intelligence. They were just known as servants because people thought that’s all they could do was cook, clean, and work. Even if a slave spoke their opinion about a situation to a white man, no matter how right they were about it, they were still wrong. This is just one of the things make us think about judging others. There are many different people and jobs that everyone just assumes that they can only do that one thing there good at and that’s all they can do.
A surgeon, a physical therapist, and teacher are the three professions that Mike Rose talks about in this chapter. He says that people look at a surgeon and think that all they have to do is go to college and study, study, and study. That’s not true. Yes, a surgeon has to study all parts of the body and different types of medication to give to a patient but they also have to know how to perform surgery. It’s not like they look in a book and read how to cut someone up to perform open heart surgery. That’s like sending a college student who wants to become a surgeon to become a surgery. That person would have no idea how to do it. They have procedures that teach the surgeon how to perform it. They have dummies they practice on and they even technology to help them learn also. So we all think that they only have to read and study but there is so much more to it.
Many athletes face the problem of pulled muscles, strains, and broken bones. To make their injuries stronger again, well that’s when the physical therapist comes in. Once again, Mike Rose says that people assume that a physical therapist needs to only study the anatomy of a person to know how to heal them. No, they can’t just know how to stretch a certain muscle they have to be able to practice before they can do that. If all a physical therapist did was tell someone to do a certain exercise or stretch, and never really tried it out themselves, then we would have many injured athletes. A physical therapist needs to try the stretches out to see how they feel and how they can help an injury. It is just something that they have to do and people would be shocked for all the work they do.
It is a requirement to send children to school. It is their own decision if they want to drop out for their future. Hopefully we have intelligent and fun teachers that make kids want to continue to come to school. Some people that teaching is an easy job and that they get paid enough money. That is not true at all! Teachers might have a really good schedule for the year, but they don’t get paid enough. A teacher needs to be able to associate with children and have a lot of patience. Teachers need to be able to understand what they are being taught so that they can teach one day. They also have to deal with children and there are some good kids who listen and then there are some that just choose not to. Teachers have to be able to have fun but also know when to be serious. If they are not serious enough then the students can just walk all over them. School is not one of the greatest things to go to but it’s something that everyone has to do. So a teacher has to be able to make a student want to learn and want to come back the next day. They can’t just learn all the information that they need to teach, they need to observe classes and also be a student teacher. So they also have a lot of requirements that they also have to do to be able to teach.
All jobs in their own way and there is a lot more to them than people think. People should realize when looking at a job, they can’t just assume that the worker has to only know how to do one thing. Jobs require so much, such as skill, memorization, and experience. There are people who don’t even have all of those requirements. It does take time to get all of them though. No one should judge someone because of where they work. That person who they judge who’s working at McDonalds could be at college trying to get his PhD. People surprise us everyday and it is a great achievement that they continue to.