Sample Prompt 3

Directions: Think carefully about the issue presented in the following paragraph and respond to the assignment below. You have 25 minutes.

Epictetus, who lived from 55 AD-135AD, claimed, “Only the educated are free.” Just under 2,000 years later Benjamin Franklin, one of the most influential founding fathers of America, said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

Unfortunately, many people are still dropping out of high school and not pursuing a college degree. Maybe these great thinkers were wrong?

Assignment: How do you feel about the idea that education is not necessarily as important as the two people mentioned in the passage above claim it to be? 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 observations.