NYT: Room for Debate

What do you think?

Changes, Challenges and Choices: Our best work

Be organized, focused, and careful with your diction and syntax.  Use details.  Use rhetorical devices. Check all spelling and grammar.  Make this your very best work.

Changes, Challenges and Choices: What's your story?

Tell us about it.
(Drafts)

Is fast food ruining American bodies? (Extra credit blogging opportunity)

There are forty-seven fast foods restaurants in Frankfort (OK, that's a guess, but I bet I'm close).  In Midway?  None.  We have an ordinance against it.  Some posit that the ability to get fast food cheaply and quickly is destroying our bodies and maybe even our minds.  Fast food is of the lowest quality and the highest in fat, preservatives, and processed food stuffs.  Others insist that this is a free country and that we ought to be able to destroy our bodies if we want to.  Still others insist that fast food isn't as bad as we think.

We are the fattest and least healthy nation in the world.  What should we do about it?  Would limiting or banning fast food or soft drinks or other offenders bring us closer to a fix? Should we put restrictions on it like cigarettes?

Photo credit: Jon Feinstein

Got Milk? (Respond to the 2008 AP Lang prompt for extra credit)

For years corporations have sponsored high school sports. Their ads are found on the outfield fence at baseball parks or on the walls of the gymnasium, the football stadium, or even the locker room. Corporate logos are even found on players’ uniforms. But some schools have moved beyond corporate sponsorship of sports to allowing “corporate partners” to place their names and ads on all kinds of school facilities—libraries, music rooms, cafeterias. Some schools accept money to require students to watch Channel One, a news program that includes advertising. And schools often negotiate exclusive contracts with soft drink or clothing companies.

Some people argue that corporate partnerships are a necessity for cash-strapped schools. Others argue that schools should provide an environment free from ads and corporate influence. Using appropriate evidence, write an essay in which you evaluate the pros and cons of corporate sponsorship for schools and indicate why you find one position more persuasive than the other. 

Why Should I Care?

The world is full of problems; our environment may not support life much longer, we suffer from myriad diseases, many are plagued by poverty.

What do you care about?  Why should anyone else share your passion?  Explain what issue(s) you are most concerned about and why anyone else should also care.  Educate us.  Inspire us.  Make a difference.

Extra credit for boxes of Kleenex? Points for Pens? What are the ethics of offering incentives for charitable acts?

(AP Language Exam - 2007)

A weekly feature of The New York Times Magazine is a column by Randy Cohen called “The Ethicist," in which people raise ethical questions to which Cohen provides answers. The question below is from the column that appeared on April 4, 2003.

At my high school, various clubs and organizations sponsor charity drives, asking students to bring in money, food, and clothing. Some teachers offer bonus points on tests and final averages as incentives to participate. Some parents believe that this sends a morally wrong message, undermining the value of charity as a selfless act. Is the exchange of donations for grades O.K. ?

The practice of offering incentives for charitable acts is widespread, from school projects to fund drives by organizations such as public television stations, to federal income tax deductions for contributions to charities.

In a well-written essay, develop a position on the ethics of offering incentives for charitable acts. Support your position with evidence from your reading, observation, and/or experience.