Required Word Count: 1500-2000 Words

Your task for this essay is to select the following debate topic: American education. Using both the course readings and your own experience, you should respond to the following prompt:

1. In a time of growing economic insecurity, many critics have singled out the U.S. education system, especially the supposedly shrinking value of a traditional college degree. Using at least two of the course readings on this subject, your task is to define what you think the value of an education is, and how you think this definition can help to settle the controversy surrounding a college education. You are invited to choose among the following readings:

1. Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism.” https://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cms/lib09/UT01001306/Centricity/Domain/9649/reading_2_hidden_intellectualism.pdf
2. Mike Rose’s “Blue Collar Brilliance”              https://theamericanscholar.org/blue-collar-brilliance/#
3. Liz Addison’s “Two Years Are Better Than Four.”          https://essay.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/two-years-are-better-than-four/
4. Freeman Hrabowski’s “Colleges Prepare People for Life.”     http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-hrabowski-20131221-story.html
5. Michelle Obama’s “Bowie State University Commencement Speech.”        https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/17/remarks-first-lady-bowie-state-university-commencement-ceremony

Drafting Requirements: 
 

Your paper should be double-spaced, written in 12-point font (in Calibri, Ariel, or Times New Roman), with 1-inch-margins and page numbers. Give your paper an original title, and be sure to include the following information in the upper-left-hand corner of the first page: your name, the instructor’s name, the class number and section, the due date, and the word count.

You are also required to include in-text citations