PROMPT 1:

"Because of cell phones, hiking in wilderness areas may be safer than before, but it is also noisier than ever. Although people might bring cell phones with them to use in case of an emergency, emergencies are rare. More often, people receive incoming business and even social calls. Technology seems to be following us everywhere: into the wilderness, and then back into civilization. Anywhere at any time, everyone else present can be disturbed by one person's call. Because more people in these circumstances are bothered by cell phones than are helped, these gadgets should not be permitted in certain public places or designated natural areas."

--Lois Quaide

PROMPT 2:

“The fact is, truth is your truest friend no matter what the circumstances are.”

–Abraham Lincoln

PROMPT 3.:

In “Preparing Students for the Brave New World,” futurist R.J. Roemer raises serious questions about how well prepared the current American high school student will be for the realities of the 21st century:

“Ask any expert on the challenges we will face in the 21st century, and they will tell you that the most important quality an individual can possess in order to ensure success is the ability to continually learn and to constantly adapt to changes in the economy, in the workplace, and in technology. It will be those self-directed people with a zeal for learning who will be ready to take on the challenges that these changes will surely bring by continually exploring ways to improve and prepare themselves. And in this, the American student is indeed poorly prepared. If integrity is what one does when no one is watching, then the American high school student lacks any integrity when it comes to learning. Our classrooms are filled with individuals who, at best, do the minimum amount of work they can in order to get the grade they desire. If it’s not going to be tested, they won’t listen. If it’s not going to be quizzed, they won’t read it. And if the teacher is not watching, they won’t participate. These are students for whom education has little to do with learning or improving or preparing themselves for the future…they merely want to get over the next hurdle in front of them.”

PROMPT 4:

"It is painfully apparent today that millions of Americans who would never think of themselves as lawbreakers, let alone criminals, are taking increasing liberties with all sorts of ‘minor’ laws that are nonetheless designed to protect and nourish society. When it comes to tax codes, or laws against littering or speeding or noise pollution, more and more ordinary citizens are becoming scofflaws [people who casually break the law]. The slogan of the day seems to be, ‘You’re a fool if you obey the rules.’ Americans are used to thinking that law-and-order is threatened mainly by violent crime. But the foundations of social order are more profoundly shaken when ordinary law-abiding citizens take to skirting the law."

--Adapted from Frank Trippet’s “A Red Light for Scofflaws”