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1. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below: (2005.5)
It's easy to see why—aside from the income it provides—having a job is so desirable in our culture. Work works for us. It structures our time and imposes a rhythm on our lives. It gets us organized into various kinds of communities and social groups. And perhaps most important, work tells us what to do every day.
Adapted from Joanne B. Ciulla, The Working Life
Assignment: Do people depend on work—whether it is a job, schoolwork, or volunteer work—to determine what their daily activities and interactions with others should be? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observation.
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2. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below: (2005.5)
There is no progress unless someone comes up with a new way of looking at things, of trying things that have never been done or thought of before. We cannot move forward by looking backward to old customs and past experience. There can be no advancement or improvement unless there are people who look forward in pursuit of the new and untried.
Assignment: Does progress depend on people with new ideas rather than on people whose ideas are based on the current way of doing things? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observation.
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3. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below: (2005.5)
We are afraid that our cause is unjust, or that it is unclear, or that it is too insignificant to justify the horrors of a confrontation with Authority. We will endure almost any inconvenience before undertaking head-on, I'm-here-to-tell-you complaint.
Adapted from William F. Buckley, Jr., “Why Don't We Complain?”
Assignment: Are people afraid to speak out against authority, whether the authority is an individual, a group, or a government? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
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4. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below: (2005.5)
Alone we can afford to be wholly whatever we are and to feel whatever we feel absolutely. With others we are busy wondering what does my companion see or think of this, and what do I think of it? The original impact of our feelings gets lost or reduced.
Adapted from May Sarton, the Rewards of Living a Solitary Life
Assignment: Does worrying too much about other people’s opinions prevent us from seeing things clearly? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
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5. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below: (2005.6)
Many persons believe that to move up the ladder of success and achievement, they must forget the past, repress it, and relinquish it. But others have just the opposite view. They see old memories as a chance to reckon with the past and integrate past and present.
Adapted from Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation
Assignment: Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observation.
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6. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below: (2005.6)
I cannot comprehend those who emphasize or recognize only what is useful. I am concerned that learning for learning's sake is no longer considered desirable, that everything we do and think must be directed toward the solution of a practical problem. More and more we seem to try to teach how to make a good living and not how to live a good life.
Adapted from Philip D. Jordan, “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge”
Assignment: Do people put too much emphasis on learning practical skills? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observation.