55. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　引文: Most human beings spend their lives doing work they hate and work that the world does not need. It is of prime importance that you learn early what you want to do and whether or not the world needs this service. The return from your work must be the satisfaction that work brings you and the worlds need of that work. Income is not money, it is satisfaction; it is creation; it is beauty.

　　Adapted from W.E.B. Du Bois, The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century

　　引文: Many people believe that our government should do more to solve our problems. After all, how can one individual create more jobs or make roads safer or improve the schools or help to provide any of the other benefits that we have come to enjoy? And yet expecting that the governmentrather than individualsshould always come up with the solutions to societys ills may have made us less self-reliant, undermining our independence and self-sufficiency.

　　引文: Abraham Lincoln said, Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. In other words, our personal level of satisfaction is entirely within our control. Otherwise, why would the same experience disappoint one person but delight another? Happiness is not an accident but a choice.

　　引文: It is easy to make judgments about people and their actions when we do not know anything about their circumstances or what motivated them to take those actions. But we should look beyond a persons actions. When people do things that we consider outrageous, inconsiderate, or harmful, we should try to understand why they acted as they did.

　　Assignment: Is education primarily the result of influences other than school? 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.

　　56. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　Assignment: Is it better to change ones attitude than to change ones circumstances? 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.

　　57. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　Assignment: Is it more valuable for people to fit in than to be unique and different? 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.

　　58. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　Assignment: Is it best to have low expectations and to set goals we are sure of achieving? 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.

　　59. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　引文: It is easy to imagine that events and experiences in our lives will be perfect, but no matter how good something turns out to be, it can never live up to our expectations. Reality never matches our imaginations. For that reason, we should make sure our plans and goals are modest and attainable. We are much better off when reality surpasses our expectations and something turns out better than we thought it would.

　　引文: From the time people are very young, they are urged to get along with others, to try to fit in. Indeed, people are often rewarded for being agreeable and obedient. But this approach is misguided because it promotes uniformity instead of encouraging people to be unique and different. Differences among people give each of us greater perspective and allow us to make better judgments.

　　引文: If we are dissatisfied with our circumstances, we think about changing them. But the most important and effective changesin our attitudehardly occur to us. In other words, we should worry not about how to alter the world around us for the better but about how to change ourselves in order to fit into that world.

　　Adapted from Michael Hymers, Wittgenstein, Pessimism and Politics

　　引文: The education people receive does not occur primarily in school. Young people are formed by their experiences with parents, teachers, peers, and even strangers on the street, and by the sports teams they play for, the shopping malls they frequent, the songs they hear, and the shows they watch. Schools, while certainly important, constitute only a relatively small part of education.

　　Adapted from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Education for the Twenty-First Century

　　Assignment: Do we really benefit from every event or experience in some way? 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.

　　60. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　Assignment: Should modern society be criticized for being materialistic? 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.

　　55. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　引文: Most human beings spend their lives doing work they hate and work that the world does not need. It is of prime importance that you learn early what you want to do and whether or not the world needs this service. The return from your work must be the satisfaction that work brings you and the worlds need of that work. Income is not money, it is satisfaction; it is creation; it is beauty.

　　Adapted from W.E.B. Du Bois, The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century

　　引文: Many people believe that our government should do more to solve our problems. After all, how can one individual create more jobs or make roads safer or improve the schools or help to provide any of the other benefits that we have come to enjoy? And yet expecting that the governmentrather than individualsshould always come up with the solutions to societys ills may have made us less self-reliant, undermining our independence and self-sufficiency.

　　引文: Abraham Lincoln said, Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. In other words, our personal level of satisfaction is entirely within our control. Otherwise, why would the same experience disappoint one person but delight another? Happiness is not an accident but a choice.

　　引文: It is easy to make judgments about people and their actions when we do not know anything about their circumstances or what motivated them to take those actions. But we should look beyond a persons actions. When people do things that we consider outrageous, inconsiderate, or harmful, we should try to understand why they acted as they did.

　　Assignment: Is education primarily the result of influences other than school? 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.

　　56. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　Assignment: Is it better to change ones attitude than to change ones circumstances? 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.

　　57. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　Assignment: Is it more valuable for people to fit in than to be unique and different? 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.

　　58. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　Assignment: Is it best to have low expectations and to set goals we are sure of achieving? 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.

　　59. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　引文: It is easy to imagine that events and experiences in our lives will be perfect, but no matter how good something turns out to be, it can never live up to our expectations. Reality never matches our imaginations. For that reason, we should make sure our plans and goals are modest and attainable. We are much better off when reality surpasses our expectations and something turns out better than we thought it would.

　　引文: From the time people are very young, they are urged to get along with others, to try to fit in. Indeed, people are often rewarded for being agreeable and obedient. But this approach is misguided because it promotes uniformity instead of encouraging people to be unique and different. Differences among people give each of us greater perspective and allow us to make better judgments.

　　引文: If we are dissatisfied with our circumstances, we think about changing them. But the most important and effective changesin our attitudehardly occur to us. In other words, we should worry not about how to alter the world around us for the better but about how to change ourselves in order to fit into that world.

　　Adapted from Michael Hymers, Wittgenstein, Pessimism and Politics

　　引文: The education people receive does not occur primarily in school. Young people are formed by their experiences with parents, teachers, peers, and even strangers on the street, and by the sports teams they play for, the shopping malls they frequent, the songs they hear, and the shows they watch. Schools, while certainly important, constitute only a relatively small part of education.

　　Adapted from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Education for the Twenty-First Century

　　Assignment: Do we really benefit from every event or experience in some way? 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.

　　60. Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and assignment below:

　　Assignment: Should modern society be criticized for being materialistic? 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.