Issue 51 Argument 147

TOPIC: ISSUE51 - "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."
WORDS: 455 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-4-2 22:10:31

Is education truly effective only when specialized to cater the demand of each individual, as this statement maintains? However, in my view uniform education is better able to enhance a student's understanding of knowledge and help children develop a respectful manner. On the other hand, educators would be hard-pressed to carry out any practical educational policy when education is specifically designed.

Admittedly, distinct individual has differing characteristic from any one else. Besides, the ability of acquiring basic skills of learning and understanding further knowledge--such as advanced mathematical may be considerably different among a group of students. Therefore, these children or college men need special way of teaching and distinct parameters for evaluation. Without fostering them through various perspectives, educationalists may have difficulty in gracefully teaching students what they actually want to announce. For instance, in China, ancient method of teaching in class was to gather large group of people, typically 60 persons, and to explain principles and theories tediously. Not only did students feel bored about knowledge, teachers were depressed to find their students' negative feelings.

However, uniform education is a must in contemporary--whether in styles of teaching, what are explained and how grades are judged. The reason for this is simple: there are so innumerous learners that excessive specialized education lacks feasibility while the number of educators is far less than the number of students. For instance, in a high school located in my hometown, typically a physic teacher has to tackle problems arisen from about 150 students. This teacher would have no time to sleep provided that every two students demand a particular kind of education, or 75 categories of differing education must be worked out by this teacher.

Generally speaking, sometimes standard examination that all students should engage in has no alternative selections in special country or district. For instance, the entrance examination of university is just a archetype. Under this circumstance, perhaps no test taker wants to have special tests that are differing from a unique one, because fair chance of studying in a prominent university or college is the first factor to be considered. In addition, unique extensive form of education that concerns various realms can help an individual better master the basic knowledge about sciences, arts, humanities, and politics. Diverse textbooks concentrated in a variety of respects may better help a person expand his or her understanding in knowledge than a specialized education.

In summary, albeit specifically designed education can satisfy certain individuals' needs, universal style of teaching has more advantages that will guarantee fair competition, comprehensive knowledge from science to politics. Consequently, only by integrating special education and universal teaching together, education will be truly effective to influence students and thus satisfies differing needs and interests of each individual.
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TOPIC: ARGUMENT147 - The following appeared in an editorial in a business magazine.
"Although the sales of Whirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, a recent survey of video-game players suggests that this sales trend is about to be reversed. The survey asked video-game players what features they thought were most important in a video game. According to the survey, players prefer games that provide lifelike graphics, which require the most up-to-date computers. Whirlwind has just introduced several such games with an extensive advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 25 years old, the age-group most likely to play video games. It follows, then, that the sales of Whirlwind video games are likely to increase dramatically in the next few months."
WORDS: 392 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2008-4-2 22:10:31

In this argument, the verdict is that the sales of video games produced by Whirlwind are likely to sharply increase in the next few months. To support this conclusion, the speaker cites the result of a survey which demonstrates that Whirlwind's new video games just satisfy the demands of market. Besides, advertising campaign is also reckoned as powerful evidence by the arguer. However, close scrutiny of evidence unveils that this statement actually suffers from several critical fallacies, as discussed below.

To begin with, the credibility of the survey is quite questionable since no detailed information is given. For instance, whether participants of this study were random sampled is unknown. Perhaps these respondents were just a minority and thus did not represent the current consumers. Besides, the number of players was also left untended by the speaker. Maybe merely a few boys were asked what kind of video games they were fond of.

Secondly, the fact that lifelike graphics which require the most up-to-date computers may be just a sound reason for undermining the speaker's ultimateness. As common sense, price of the most recently computers is quite high, which may exceed the purchasing power of many people. Without owning a computer powerful enough, it seems that few people will purchase up-to-date video games, including those games designed by Whirlwind. Therefore, the sales of Whirlwind's video games may not have a considerable increase.

Thirdly, whether the extensive advertising campaign will conduce toward increasing purchases among people 10 to 25 is equally hard to say. People who are in their 10 to 25 may still study in school and they do not have substantial economic income as a result. Thus, even though these adolescents are quite eager to contribute to the profit of Whirlwind, they will not do so simply because they are not rich enough. Besides, whether this group of people actually is most likely to play video games lacks sufficient evidence. In addition, perhaps video games from rivals of Whirlwind are much more attractive to this age-group, which is not ruled out in this statement.

In summary, this statement indeed suffers from a few vital blemishes as discussed above. To solidify the conclusion, the speaker would have to demonstrate that the survey reflected the true ideas of the majority, and prove that people 10 to 25 have enough money to buy Whirlwind's products.