Write a three-page essay on one of the following topics.  Do not write in the first person or second person.  In addition, do not use contractions.  Give your essay a title and type in the most recent MLA format.   Include at least four article sources from Ebscohost.  Your explicit-thesis statement should be the last sentence in the introduction.

1.  Over the past few years, educational critics across the political spectrum have voiced concern about declining success rates for males in America’s schools and colleges. During the last decade, for example, the number of women in America’s colleges and universities has steadily increased until, today, women outnumber men in almost every academic field outside the so-called hard sciences. Do you think, as some critics claim, that school in America has become a “feminized” institution that is particularly hostile to boys?  What other reasons might explain declines in male educational achievement over the past two decades? 

2.  Although racial segregation has been illegal in the United States for 65 years, is it still being practiced in the educational system? If so, how? Both Clarke in “The Boy Who Painted Christ Black ” and Gregory in “Shame” demonstrate the unfair treatment that many children receive in school systems.  Like Aaron and Richard, argue how other children are experiencing racial segregation in the educational system in the twentieth-first century?

3. According to the New York City Board of Education, “Public education in a racially homogeneous setting is socially unrealistic and blocks the goals of democratic education.”  What role should public schools play in preparing students to participate and live in a democracy? What kinds of skills and experiences should they have, and what do they need to know to become effective citizens in a democratic culture?