had never thought of myself as an essayist,” wrote James Baldwin, who was finishing his novel Giovanni’s Room while he worked on what would become one of the great American essays. Against a violent historical background, Baldwin recalls his deeply troubled relationship with his father and explores his growing awareness of himself as a black American. Some today may question the relevance of the essay in our brave new “post-racial” world, though Baldwin considered the essay still relevant in 1984 and, had he lived to see it, the election of Barak Obama may not have changed his mind. However you view the racial politics, the prose is undeniably hypnotic, beautifully modulated and yet full of urgency. Langston Hughes nailed it when he described Baldwin’s “illuminating intensity.” The essay was collected in Notes of a Native Son courageously (at the time) published by Beacon Press in 1955.An essay that packed an enormous wallop at the time may make some of us cringe today with its hyperbolic dialectics and hyperventilated metaphysics. But Mailer’s attempt to define the “hipster”–in what reads in part like a prose version of Ginsberg’s “Howl”–is suddenly relevant again, as new essays keep appearing with a similar definitional purpose, though no one would mistake Mailer’s hipster (“a philosophical psychopath”) for the ones we now find in Mailer’s old Brooklyn neighborhoods. Odd, how terms can bounce back into life with an entirely different set of connotations. What might Mailer call the new hipsters? Squares?Explain why you admire a particular person.

Explain why someone you know should be regarded a leader.

Explain why parents are sometimes strict.

If you had to be an animal, which would you be and why?

Explain why you especially enjoyed a particular teacher.

Explain why some cities have curfews for teens.

Explain why some students forced to leave school once they are sixteen.

Explain how moving from place to place affects teens.

Explain why getting a drivers license is an important event in the lives of many teenagers.

Describe the major stressors in teens' lives.

Explain why you like (or do not like) to work in a team.

Describe some nonmaterial things that make you happy.

Explain why some teens commit suicide.

Explain the how music affects your life.

Explain the impact of different music genres on society.

Explain why students listen to a particular type of music.

Explain why some teens skip school.

Explain the likely consequences of skipping school.

Describe the likely consequences of doing poorly in school.

Explain why teens do drugs.

Describe the likely consequences of selling drugs.

Describe the likely consequences of taking drugs.

Explain why teens smoke cigarettes.

Explain the likely consequences of being kicked out of school.

Explain the likely consequences of skipping classes.

Explain the likely consequences of brothers and sisters constantly fighting.

Explain why teens wear makeup.

Explain the consequences of having alcohol on the school campus.

Explain the likely consequences of being sexually active without using protection.

Explain why some teens parents do not like to be alone with their child's boyfriend or girlfriend.

Explain the likely consequences of increasing the passing time between classes from five to fifteen minutes.

Explain why some teens join gangs.

Explain the difficulties some teens have once they are in