PRE-WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Read carefully the following comic from Matt Groening’s
School Is Hell.
Groening’s comic uses satire to suggest criticisms of
American public education. The objects of his criticisms
include American schools, curriculums, pedagogies,teachers
and students. Think for a few minutes about Groening’s
portrayal of these subjects. Do Groening’s views reflect
your experience with or understanding of American schools?
Are his portrayals accurate, fair, limited or mistaken?
WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Choose one criticism of American education presented in
Groening’s cartoon. In a short essay, discuss Groening’s
critique and explain your own views on the topic you have
chosen.
Helpful Hints
• Be as specific as possible; you may use examples from
your own experience
• Be sure to have a thesis
• Don’t waste time on a lengthy introduction; get to the
point right away
PRE-WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Read carefully the following excerpt from Juliet
Schor’s essay “Exiting the Squirrel Cage.”
Some people are skeptical of Americans’ need for leisure time. Work may
be bad, but perhaps leisure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. According to
economist Gary Burtless, “Most Americans who complain they enjoy too little
leisure are struggling to find a few extra minutes to watch Oprah Winfrey and
‘L.A. Law.’” Will free time be “wasted,” in front of the tube or at the mall? What
will we do with all that leisure? Won’t people just acquire second jobs? These
are serious questions, embodying two main assumptions. The first is that people
prefer work or, if they don’t, they should. The second is that leisure time is
wasted time that is neither valued nor valuable.
Consider your own attitudes toward work and leisure.
How do you or those around you spend their free time? Is it
spent valuably? What sorts of leisure activities are
valuable and why? Would you or the people you know benefit
from more free time? How would you use it?
WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
In a brief essay, respond to the idea that Americans
should work less and have more leisure time. Would American
society benefit from such a change?
Helpful Writing Tips
• Be sure to support your response with sound reasoning
• You may use your own experience as evidence for your
claims
• Don’t waste time on a lengthy introduction; get to the
point right away
PRE-WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Read carefully the following passage from Michael
Oreskes’ essay “Profiles of Today’s Youth: They Couldn’t
Care Less”:
Young people have always had to worry about getting started in life,
beginning a career and a family. But this young generation, for whom Vietnam is
a history lesson and Watergate a blurry childhood memory, seems to have adopted
the cynicism of parents and older siblings without going through the activism and
disappointments that produced that cynicism.
Not one of the young people interviewed in Columbus, at the Street Scene
Restaurant and the Short North Tavern, had a good word to say about politics or
politicians. But unlike older people, who often express anger about news about
sloth or corruption in government, these young people seem simply to be
reporting it as a well-known fact. “Most politicians are liars,” said Deborah
Roberts, a 29-year-old secretary.
Young people seem to have a half-formed understanding of citizenship,
stressing rights but ignoring responsibilities.
When asked to define citizenship, Shonda Wolfe said it meant the right
not to be harassed by the police. She cited as an intrusion on her rights the
security guards’ insistence at a concert that she and her boyfriend stop turning on
their cigarette lighters....
There is a new generation gap, in which those under 30 are separated by
their lack of knowledge and interest from those over 30. People in their 30’s and
40’s are disenchanted with the world, but remain aware. But those under 30 are
not so much disillusioned as disinterested.
Take a few minutes to reflect on what you have read.
How are young people portrayed by Oreskes? Is Oreskes’
portrait of American youth accurate and fair?
WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
In a short essay, respond to the generalizations
Oreskes’ essay makes about the political views and behaviors
of contemporary American youth. You may support, refute, or
modify Oreskes’ argument. In any case, state your own
position clearly and develop it with explanations and
examples.
Helpful Hints:
• Get right to the point; don’t waste time on a long buildup
• Use specific examples to illustrate your claims
• Be sure to have a thesis
PRE-WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Read carefully the following excerpt by Alfonse Stompanato:
The home-schooling movement has quietly grown to a size where one and
a half million young people are being educated entirely by their own parents. In
1990, the education press reported the amazing news that children schooled at
home seem to be five or even ten years ahead of their formally trained peers in
their ability to think. Children schooled at home enjoy an education that is
various, alive, participatory, whole--and, most of all, theirs. Quite frankly, no
school can hope to match it. It is an education tuned to their harmonies, local and
intimate as opposed to generic and imposed. They have not learned to be fearful
of learning, to associate it with pain and dreariness, with competition, anxiety,
dread.
Home schooling represents one of many responses to
current disatisfaction with American public schooling.
According to Stompanato, what are the advantages of home
schooling? Can you conceive of any disadvantages to home
schooling?
WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Write a brief essay in which you discuss Stompanato’s
arguments for the superiority of home schooling to public
education. You may support, refute, or modify Stompanato’s
views. In any case, state your own position clearly and
develop it with explanations and examples.
Helpful Hints:
• Get right to the point; don’t waste time on a long buildup
• Use specific examples to illustrate your claims
• You may use your own experience as evidence for your
claims
• Be sure to have a thesis
PRE-WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Read carefully the following excerpt by Gregory
Mantsios.
The distribution of income and wealth in the U.S. is grossly unequal and becomes
increasingly more so with time. The rewards of money, however, go well beyond
those of consumption patterns and life-style. It is not simply that the wealthy live
such opulent life-styles, it is that class position determines one’s life chances.
Life chances include such far-reaching factors as life expectancy, level of
education, occupational status, exosure to industrial hazards, incidence of crime
victimization, rate of incarceration, etc. In short, class position can play a
critically important role in determining how long you live, whether you have a
healthy life, if you fail in school, or if you succeed at work.
Mantsios argues that class distinctions have a
profound influence on our lives, including our success as
students. Think for a few minutes about your own
experiences of class differences. To what extent do they
enable or limit your personal success or the success of
those you know? To what extent will your class status
influence your college career?
WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
In a brief essay, respond to Mantsios’s claim that
one’s class status affects their opportunities for academic
success in a public university such as the University of
Illinois. You may support, refute, or modify Mantsios’s
views.
Helpful Hints:
• Get right to the point; don’t waste time on a long buildup
• Use specific examples to illustrate your claims
• You may use your own experience as evidence for your
claims
• Be sure to have a thesis
PRE-WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Read carefully the following excerpt from Marie Winn’s
essay, “Television and Family Rituals.”
Without conjuring up memories of the Victorian era with family games and
long, leisurely meals, and large families, the question arises: isn’t there a better
family life available than this dismal, mechanized arrangement of children
watching television for however long is allowed them evening after evening?
Of course, families today still do special things together at times: go camping
in the summer, go to the zoo on a nice Sunday, take various trips and expeditions.
But their ordinary daily life is diminished--that sitting around at the dinner table,
that spontaneous taking up of an activity, those little games invented by children
on the spur of the moment when there is nothing else to do, the scribbling, the
chatting, even the quarreling, all the things that form the fabric of a family, that
define childhood. Instead, the children have their regular schedule of television
programs and bedtime, and the parents have their peaceful dinner together.
Winn argues that television viewing threatens the
“fabric” of the modern American family, its shared
experiences and the quality of its relationships. Do you
agree with Ms. Winn that watching television has replaced
more meaningful family rituals? Do families that you know
lack these rituals? If so, is this because of television
viewing or are there other important contributing factors?
WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
Write a brief essay in which you discuss Winn’s thesis
that television viewing threatens the fabric of the modern
American family. You may support, refute, or modify Winn’s
views. In any case, state your own position clearly and
develop it with explananations and examples.
Helpful Hints:
• Get right to the point; don’t waste time on a long buildup
• Use specific examples to illustrate your claims
• Be sure to have a thesis