Sample Summary Response Essay On Let Teenagers Try Adulthood 
I.
a.
b.
Intro
Academic summary:
In “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,”
Leon Botstein argues that the “American high school is obsolete and should be abolished.” He explains that this obsolescence is because high school does not represent the way real life works, that real life is not a popularity contest dominated by the best athletes like the hierarchies that he claims exist among students and teachers in high schools.
Botstein suggests that our society sequesters teenagers in high schools because adults “don’t like adolescents.” More options for teenagers is what Botstein wants—he suggests that they graduate at 16 and go on to other things such as joining the work force, attending specialized schools for professional training, or going to college where at least the teachers are not there because they are popular, but because they are experts in their fields, Botstein argues.
Thesis:
It’s true that the American high school could change for the better, but Botstein is wrong about the “poor quality of recruitment and training for high school teachers.” High school teachers are not selected based on popularity (main idea for first body paragraph), and many of them are not only experts in their fields, but far more effective teachers than the college professors that Botstein claims to be preferred because of their expertise within their fields (main idea for second body paragraph).
II.
a.
b.
Body paragraph
Topic sentence: High school teachers are most definitely not selected based on popularity or some remnant of a presumed cliquebased hierarchy of high school; they are selected based on experience and proven success as teachers.
Evidence:
For example, I was a complete unknown when I applied for my teaching job in Illinois. I was moving there
c.
d.
from Seattle, and I knew not a single person in east central
Illinois. What got my principal to call me up on the phone for an interview was not any degree of popularity
a.
b.
Intro
Academic summary:
In “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,”
Leon Botstein argues that the “American high school is obsolete and should be abolished.” He explains that this obsolescence is because high school does not represent the way real life works, that real life is not a popularity contest dominated by the best athletes like the hierarchies that he claims exist among students and teachers in high schools.
Botstein suggests that our society sequesters teenagers in high schools because adults “don’t like adolescents.” More options for teenagers is what Botstein wants—he suggests that they graduate at 16 and go on to other things such as joining the work force, attending specialized schools for professional training, or going to college where at least the teachers are not there because they are popular, but because they are experts in their fields, Botstein argues.
Thesis:
It’s true that the American high school could change for the better, but Botstein is wrong about the “poor quality of recruitment and training for high school teachers.” High school teachers are not selected based on popularity (main idea for first body paragraph), and many of them are not only experts in their fields, but far more effective teachers than the college professors that Botstein claims to be preferred because of their expertise within their fields (main idea for second body paragraph).
II.
a.
b.
Body paragraph
Topic sentence: High school teachers are most definitely not selected based on popularity or some remnant of a presumed cliquebased hierarchy of high school; they are selected based on experience and proven success as teachers.
Evidence:
For example, I was a complete unknown when I applied for my teaching job in Illinois. I was moving there
c.
d.
from Seattle, and I knew not a single person in east central
Illinois. What got my principal to call me up on the phone for an interview was not any degree of popularity