While often jocose and occasionally hyperbolic, Hunter Maats and Katie O’Brien make many research-supported points in The Straight-A Conspiracy. Foundational to the rest is “[t]he idea that [a person has] to be ‘born smart’ . . . is the [w]orst [i]dea [e]ver” (Maats and O’Brien 15). You will write an MLA formatted essay that refutes or supports this assertion, correctly incorporates in-text/parenthetical citations, and is between 750-1250 (3-5 pages, excluding your necessary Works Cited page). Your essay MUST incorporate at least two of the following three primary sources in support of your thesis:
Plato’s Republic (Book VI’s section on epistemology and/or Book VII’s section on education),
Plato’s Meno
Stephen Jay Gould’s “The Monster’s Human Nature”
Further, you can use any other sources (e.g., books, articles, podcasts, documentaries, videos, etc.) that you but all sources must be correctly cited.
Develop and present a clear and cogent thesis statement1 of your own on the topic of people’s not being born smart that is as limited and direct as possible yet still broad enough to incorporate the minimum two primary sources you must cite (as well as any others sources you choose to incorporate).
Support your thesis (A.K.A. argument)2 with an with a clear essay structure (refer to CH. 8 of Maats and O’Brien’s The Straight-A Conspiracy, that chapter's "perfect paragraph" as I called it on the “Essay Structure Review" page of the Week 8 Canvas module, an