Choose two of the three essays listed below:
Amy Chua Why Chinese Mothers are Superior
Mark Edmundson Educations Hungry Hearts
John Taylor Gatto Against School
Task: For Paper 3, you will compose a synthesis essay in which you bring Anna Quindlen,s Doing Nothing Is Something into conversation with Amy Chua (Why Chinese Mothers are Superior), and/or Mark Edmundson (Educations Hungry Hearts), and/or John Taylor Gatto (Against School). All of these writers are trying to figure out what motivates peopleespecially young peopleto learn or to what extent should boredom or forced learning exist for children and young adults. Your essay should draw connections between these sources, and you should use them to support your own argument about how best to encourage learning. Each paragraph of the paper must discuss more than one author.
As you write, you should be careful to position your observations in relation to those in our readings. That is, where do your ideas match up with observations that other scholars have made? Be wary of hasty generalizations. Note: You are presenting an original argument.
Or, alternatively, how do your ideas counter, complicate, or build on what they have discovered? Be sure to acknowledge any foreseeable counter arguments to your point of view.
A key in synthesis is to make connections between different authors ideas, not simply present their different arguments.