Assignment:  

Both Confessions of an Erstwhile Child and Political Economy and Family Policy are strong indictments of the contemporary view of the traditional American Family. We want to focus in on the role of parenting and children in these essays. Both essays argue for the possibility of revocation of parental rights over children, one at the request of the children affected, the other at demand of a closely monitoring state. Both of these support a much stronger social control over child-rearing.

Procedure:

Rearead these essays to find the passages pertinent to our subject. In your essay, briefly present the argument of both essays concerning revocation of parent’s rights over the control and rearing of their children. Then, react to those arguments with reasoning. Where should the limits of social control over the rights of parents be? How do they balance with the rights of children?

Outline.  Draft your papers.  Use the section from your Little, Brown Reader, “A Reader Writes.

Submitting Via Email: 

You will submit these papers as MS Word documents, as attachments to and email addressed to steelej@wit.edu. The names of your attached documents should be [name]_2.doc, and [name}_J2. The Subject line of your Email should read English 100.  Papers should be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, February 11.

Format: 

 These papers will be in MLA format:  One inch margins, completely double-spaced (no more no less), in a standard 12 point font, pages numbered.  I expect these papers to be 1000 words, minimum, carefully proofread and edited.