This assignment asks you to write a short argumentative essay of 500-1000 words in which you make an argument about a topic brought up in the readings. Choose one of the five options below to write an argumentative essay.
Essay Option One: Support, refute, or complicate the argument that Coontz and Coates’ essays show that nostalgia for an idealized past America is a morally bankrupt proposition based on the exploitation of one race feeding the democratic freedoms of another.
Essay Option Two: Support, refute, or complicate Coates’ argument that America is morally compelled to pay African Americans reparations for the evils of slavery and Jim Crow.
Essay Option Three. Develop a thesis that explains to what extent do Gatto and Ravitch agree on the limitations of the current education system and on the purposes of a genuine education?
Essay Option Four. Support, refute, or complicate the argument that Malcolm X, as evidenced in his “Learning to Read” would agree with Deresiewicz that real education means self-imposed isolation, developing critical thinking skills, and “building a self.”
Essay Option Five. Support, refute, or complicate the argument that Diane Ravitch and Deresiewicz have written complementary essays that excoriate degraded forms of commercialized education.
you can use these sources
eading for Monday, 1/22 “What We Really Miss About the 1950s” by Stephanie Coontz https://legalectric.org/f/2016/10/WhatWeReallyMissAboutthe1950s_Coontz.pdf Links to an external site.
Reading for Friday, 1/26 “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ Links to an external site.
Reading for Monday, 1/29 “The Essentials of a Good Education” by Diane Ravitch The Essentials of a Good Education.pdfPreview the document
Reading for Monday, 1/29 “Against School” by John Gatto http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~abatko/interests/teaching/essays/Against_Schools/ Links to an external site.
Reading for Monday, 1/29 “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X https://www2.palomar.edu/users/lchen/Malcolm%20X.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Reading for Wednesday, 1/31 “Don’t Send Your Kids to the Ivy League” by William Deresiewicz https://newrepublic.com/article/118747/ivy-league-schools-are-overrated-send-your-kids-elsewhere Links to an external site.