1. Apply the writer's criticism to work done in school.
  2. What should be the purpose of public school education?
  3. What advantage does the writer gain by quoting from the “successful failure”?
  4. Why does the writer give only a résumé of some of the words of the “successful failure”?
  5. What is real culture?
  6. What is the difference between “passing” and “learning”?
  7. What is an “imitation parchment degree”?
  8. How long should a person pursue systematic study?
  9. What principles should guide a person in reading books?
  10. What is the difference between being “taught about Shakespeare” and being “taught Shakespeare”?
  11. What is the proper attitude toward newspaper reading?
  12. What is “intellectual window-dressing”?
  13. What should one know of history?
  14. What should one know concerning various lands?
  15. On what should real appreciation of music depend?
  16. How should education contribute to political life?
  17. What is the importance of education in the United States?
  18. What is the basis of real leadership?
  19. Make a list of the “vital matters of public affair” on which the writer believes people should be informed.
  20. On how many of these subjects are you informed?

SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION

1. My Own Scholarship11. Learning a Foreign Language
2. My School Career12. The Value of Science
3. Public School Scholarship13. Reading Shakespeare
4. Real Study14. Studying Music
5. The Passing Mark15. Newspaper Reading
6. The Best Teachers16. The Use of a Library
7. The Study of History17. A Real Student
8. Good Reading18. An Educated Citizen
9. The Study of Governments19. A Good School
10. The Purpose of Education20. Systematic Study

DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING

If you cannot quote from the words of written articles you can at least quote from what people have said in conversation. You can also make full use of your own experience. Begin your essay, as Mr. Frank begins his, by making some statement of actual experience. When you have done this add original comments that will lead, in the end, to a wise suggestion for the future. Both by the use of the pronoun “I,” and by a certain informality of style, make your work personal.

FOOTNOTES:

[136] Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400). Author of The Canterbury Tales, a series of realistic narratives in verse.

[137] Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and John Fletcher (1579-1625). Two of the most celebrated of Shakespeare's contemporaries. They wrote in collaboration, and produced at least 52 plays.

[138] Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866). Author of a number of highly original and witty novels.

[139] Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823). An English novelist who wrote chiefly of the mysterious and terrible, as in The Mysteries of Udolpho, her most famous book.