Editorial: Painting involves a sequential application of layers, each of which adheres satisfactorily only if the underlying layer has been properly applied. Education is, in this respect, like the craft of painting. Since the most important steps in painting are preparation of the surface to be painted and application of the primer coat, it makes sense to suppose that _______.
Summary
Painting involves the application of layers. Subsequent layers of paint adhere only when the underlying layer has been properly applied. The most important steps in painting are preparing the surface to be painted and applying the primer coat. Education, in this respect, is similar to painting.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
It makes sense to suppose that the success of a student’s education requires a satisfactory preliminary steps.
A
in the educator’s initial contact with a student, the educator should be as undemanding as possible
We don’t know how an education should act towards students.
B
students who have a secure grasp of the fundamentals of a subject are likely to make progress in that subject
We don’t know whether a student’s grasp of the fundamentals would likely lead to progress in that subject. We only know that the fundamentals are required in order to have a chance at grasping a subject.
C
educators who are not achieving the goals they intended should revise their teaching methods
We don’t know what educators should do. We only know what are the most important factors for a student’s education.
D
teaching new students is rewarding but much more difficult than teaching more advanced students
We don’t know which types of students are more difficult to teach.
E
the success of a student’s overall educational experience depends above all upon that student’s initial educational experience
If the most important factors for the success of painting are preparing and priming the surface, then the most important factors for the success of education is the initial educational experience.
A
reasoning that because an event has not occurred, that event has a low probability of occurring
B
drawing a conclusion that implicitly contradicts one of the premises that the argument accepts
C
taking for granted that dependable predictions about the future cannot ever be made simply on the basis of the present facts
D
inferring that since an event that is taken to be likely on a given hypothesis has not occurred, the hypothesis is probably false
E
making a prediction far into the future based on established human tendencies
The author points out that Riley has had a feud with the president, so we shouldn’t believe that the speech was inflammatory merely because Riley says it was.
Thus, the author concludes that if we don’t have any independent reason to think the speech was inflammatory, the speech was not inappropriate.
The author also assumes that being inflammatory is the only way for the speech to have been inappropriate. In other words, the author’s overlooking the possibility that the speech could have been inappropriate even if it was not inflammatory.