The concepts to consider are Education, Knowledge and Learning. Using the short story, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass, “The Allegory of a Cave” by Plato, and “I Just Want to Be Average” by Mike Rose. The concepts to consider are Education and Learning. After reading and contemplating these essays, consider one or all of these questions to develop a thoughtful directed essay of your own. What happens when human beings make a commitment to something? When they decide something is good to and for them, how does a story unfold? How do things slowly come together to create advancement and realizations? These discoveries could be about learning, the world around us (them), self-discovery, planning, etc. What are the important ingredients within a fulfilling education? What is needed for everything to proceed in a logical and thoughtful way? Are things missing in our public education system that are necessary? Is our own education up to us? Who should decide? What would happen to our society if we decided that education was no longer important? What does motivation have to do with education? What presses people to move forward into something? Is it self-motivation or others pushing us, or a little bit of both? Is knowledge power? Is it currency? Is it freedom? If yes, how can it possibly be all these things? You may chose one to focus on, if you wish. How and why do children, young adults and adults today have disdain for knowledge and education? Your essay is about Education and Learning. If you are jumping to this assignment without looking at the content before this assignment, you are doing yourself a disservice. Please write an essay about Education, Learning, or any aspect of growth through knowledge. You must use the essays we have read and discussed. They are listed above. When I say use, I mean reference them and use quotes from them. You must use at least two of them, but you may also use them all. Throughout your essay reference them or quote them to enhance your expression. Please look at the page, Essay Writing, to assist you in this process. There is NO NEED to acknowledge and reference the essays we read in your introduction. Your introduction should discuss the concept you choose. YOUR essay isn't about the essays we read. YOUR essay is about a concept; Education or a related concept. You may NOT use the titles or authors or the essays we read in your thesis statement. You may NOT start your paragraphs with the titles or authors of those essays. The best thing to do is start your body paragraphs with a TOPIC SENTENCE about an aspect of the concept of "education." Refer to Essay Writing to see how important brainstorming is in your process. Figure out what each body paragraph will reveal. Figure out through a thought process what aspects of education you would like to address. For instance, you could start one of your body paragraphs with this topic sentence: Once a piece of knowledge is revealed to us, no one can take it away. Do you see how broad and helpful this topic sentence is? After this sentence, you can share your own thoughts about knowledge and its effect on us. You can discuss retention or the uses of the knowledge we gain. Within that paragraph, pick one of the pieces we read that suits this topic and find a quote or two to add to this particular focus. Then continue the discussion as to how this quote shares an example of retention or the power of knowledge or ownership of knowledge. It's wide open, but you have to make decisions and stay organized. Try to always think conceptually for TOPIC SENTENCES. They are UMBRELLA statements, meaning, everything within the paragraph should fit nicely and neatly underneath it. You may use your own personal experience, but ONLY and EITHER in the intro or ONE body paragraph---NOT THROGHOUT your essay. This is your essay and you may use the pronoun "I," but it is still an academic essay. You are a college student, not a professional writer. Casually discussing education with me in your document will not bode well for your grade. Take this seriously and stay organized. Make wise decisions about your body paragraphs. Helpful hint: Using "we" and "us" and "our" in your essay is a good idea. That way, you are talking about all of us crazy humans; our entire world or culture. Careful to be consistent in this. I say this because often writers get tangled up in using "one" and then can't get out of it, or they continually use "you" and after a while, the reader disagrees. The reader thinks, "You as in me? No, that's not me." We use YOU casually when we talk for hypotheticals, but it does not work in formal documents. MLA MLA stands for Modern Language Association. My favorite website for MLA formatting assistance is OWL at Perdue University. If you type OWL into your google browser, you will likely get images of owls and the website OWL Arrow This OWL is hyperlinked. Go to the site with it. Scroll down just a bit and you will see an example of a front page. MLA does not require a cover page. Do not use a cover page. The front page requirements are all there on OWL. There's a list and an image of a perfect front page. Check it out! Please write a 5 paragraph essay with an introduction, conclusion and three body paragraphs. All paragraphs should be 6-10+ sentences long. the document should have 750 + words. The Introduction should begin broadly and end your introduction with a thesis statement. The thesis statement should be in the introduction and clarify the intention of the essay. If you can't fit all your intentions into one sentence, so be it, but I should (as a reader) know what your plan is at the close of your introduction. The Conclusion should share a final thought that drives the thesis to its logical conclusion. What ideas or thoughts go beyond your analysis? Try and keep a "golden nugget" for the conclusion. Also, when an introduction and conclusion have a connection, it can be dynamic. Body paragraphs should have a wise conceptually based topic sentence. All material within each body paragraph should fit accurately inside. No authors or titles of essays we read for this assignment should be in your topic sentences. Personal story within your essay- If you choose to use your personal story in one of your body paragraphs, be careful to depict your anecdote with details and a plot. It should have a logical beginning, middle and end. You must use at least three quotes from the essays and short story suggested for this assignment. You must use more than one of the readings. MLA Formatting Rubric