PrepTest 116, Section 3, Question 4
Sydonie: Parents differ in their beliefs about the(60 more words not shown)
Stephanie's argument is most vulnerable(6 more words not shown)
- Ait focuses on(6 more words not shown)
- Bit addresses a(9 more words not shown)
- Cit does not(13 more words not shown)
- Dthe phrase "high(18 more words not shown)
- Eit fails to(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Everyone can want good discipline and still disagree about what good discipline looks like.
One family might want strict rules. Another might prefer to give children more freedom. So when Sydonie says a school's discipline will conflict with some parents' approaches, I can see the concern. A policy that pleases one family could bother another.
Stephanie thinks a survey settles the disagreement: parents put good discipline high on their lists. But that doesn't tell us what any of those parents means by good discipline. A strict parent and a relaxed parent could both check that box while imagining very different schools.
Imagine parents saying religion is an important issue in education. One might mean that religious instruction belongs in the classroom; another might mean that keeping it out is a high priority. Agreement that the subject matters doesn't establish agreement about how to handle it.
What we’re looking for
That's the problem the flaw question asks us to identify. Stephanie shows that parents value discipline without answering Sydonie's concern that their ideas about discipline differ. She hasn't given us a reason to think the conflicting expectations disappear.
Working the answers
- A
Research can tell us something useful about educational practice. There is no automatic problem with using survey evidence to discuss parents' preferences. The problem is what this particular survey establishes: importance, rather than agreement about the rules schools should use.
- B
Moving to a more general issue is not the defect we need to identify. Both speakers discuss parents' views about school discipline. Stephanie's evidence leaves out the difference between parents' preferred approaches, but her reasoning doesn't fail simply because of how broadly she frames the subject. C identifies the specific unanswered concern.
- CCorrect
Sydonie's point is that parents have different ideas about appropriate rules. Stephanie replies that parents want good discipline. Those claims can both be true. Unless Stephanie shows that the parents mean the same thing by good discipline, their shared interest in it doesn't defeat Sydonie's concern about resentment.
- D
We understand enough from 'high on the list': discipline is a priority. Whether it ranks first, second, or third doesn't resolve this argument. Even if every parent ranked it first, they could still disagree completely about which rules count as good discipline. A more precise ranking wouldn't repair Stephanie's response.
- E
Teachers and administrators might have useful opinions about discipline, but the dispute concerns parents' differing expectations. Finding out what educators prefer wouldn't establish that parents agree or that a school's rules won't conflict with some families' approaches. This omitted topic isn't the missing answer to Sydonie.
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