Take a Stand and Defend It

Do you think students should be allowed to grade their teachers at the end of the year? Write an opinion essay explaining your position. Consider fairness, whether students would be honest, and whether it would actually help teachers improve.

Should parents set strict screen time limits for kids, or should kids decide for themselves how much screen time they get? Write your opinion with at least three reasons. Think about health, learning, responsibility, and trust.

Should your school require uniforms or allow students to wear whatever they want? Take a clear position and support it with reasons about fairness, self-expression, bullying, cost, and school spirit.

Do you believe zoos are good for animals, or should they be closed? Write an opinion piece considering animal welfare, conservation, education, and entertainment. Support your position with specific examples.

What is the most important subject taught in school? Choose one and argue why it matters more than the others. Think about how this subject helps people in real life, in their future jobs, and in understanding the world.

The minimum age for most social media platforms is 13, but many younger kids use them. Should the age requirement be raised, lowered, or enforced more strictly? Write an argument supporting your position, addressing mental health, cyberbullying, digital literacy, and parental responsibility.

Some students use AI tools like ChatGPT to write their essays. Should schools allow this, ban it completely, or find a middle ground? Write your opinion with clear reasoning about learning, fairness, creativity, and the future of work.

Should every kid on a sports team get a trophy, or should trophies only go to winners? Write a persuasive opinion piece addressing what trophies are supposed to represent, whether participation awards help or harm motivation, and what message each approach sends.

Should schools switch to a year-round calendar with shorter, more frequent breaks instead of one long summer vacation? Argue your position using evidence about learning loss, student burnout, family schedules, and how other countries handle school calendars.

Some parents and school boards want to remove certain books from school libraries because of their content. Should any books be banned from school libraries, or should students have access to all books? Write your opinion considering free speech, age-appropriateness, parental rights, and the purpose of education.

Is a four-year college degree still necessary for a successful career, or has it become overrated and overpriced? Argue your position using evidence about earnings data, student debt, alternative paths (trades, certifications, entrepreneurship), and how employers are changing their hiring requirements.

Several countries allow 16-year-olds to vote. Should the US lower its voting age from 18 to 16? Write an argument addressing civic maturity, taxation without representation, voter turnout, and whether age determines readiness for democratic participation.

Should governments have the right to monitor citizens' digital communications to prevent terrorism and crime, or does this violate fundamental privacy rights? Take a clear position and address encryption, surveillance programs, the Fourth Amendment, and where the line should be drawn.

Is "cancel culture" a form of necessary social accountability, or has it become a destructive form of mob justice? Write an opinion essay addressing due process, the power of social media, the difference between consequences and punishment, and whether public shaming changes behavior.

When professional athletes use their platform to make political statements — kneeling during the anthem, wearing protest messages, boycotting events — are they using their influence responsibly, or should they "stick to sports"? Argue your position addressing free speech, role model responsibility, and the history of athlete activism.

Write an opinion piece arguing that remote work should be the default for any job that can be done from a computer, with in-office work requiring justification rather than the other way around. Address productivity data, commute costs, work-life balance, collaboration, and the commercial real estate lobby's influence on return-to-office mandates.

Write an opinion piece about whether America's tipping culture should be replaced with higher base wages. Address the history of tipping (including its racist origins), the psychology of guilt-based payment, the unpredictability for workers, and what countries without tipping culture do differently.

Write an opinion piece arguing that social media platforms marketed as "free" actually extract enormous costs from users — in attention, mental health, personal data, and democratic discourse. Take a clear position on what should change: regulation, paid alternatives, digital literacy education, or something else entirely.

Write an opinion essay arguing for or against the statement: "Hustle culture and the glorification of overwork primarily benefits employers and investors, not the workers who sacrifice their health and relationships." Use evidence about productivity research, burnout statistics, wealth inequality, and who actually profits from the "grind" narrative.

The "learn to code" advice has been given to everyone from laid-off journalists to struggling artists. Write an opinion piece either defending coding literacy as a modern essential skill or arguing that this advice is overhyped and ignores the realities of the job market, AI automation, and the diversity of human talents.