Argument64,希望能得到一些大致的改进意见

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GRE Argument第64题
The following appeared in a memo from the Dean of the College of Education at Omni State University. "Only seven of our state's high schools offer even one course in Latin, but over 80 percent of the graduates who study Latin at those seven schools enroll in college. Furthermore, a recent study shows that students who have mastered Latin perform much better in logic and critical thinking. Thus, in order to increase the percentage of our high school students who graduate from college as well as to ensure that they receive a better education in critical thinking, Omni State University should begin an intensive program to prepare our future teachers to teach high school Latin."




The Dean in Omni State University suggests that the school start programs to let more teachers teach Latin in order to increase the percentage of college graduates and cultivate students' ability of critical thinking. He provides two arguments supporting his point. One is that 80%of the students who came from 7 state high schools-which provide Latin courses-got enrolled in college. The other is that based on a study, mastering Latin helps improving logical thinking and critical thinking. There are several logical flaws laying in this recommendation.


The threshold problem is that the dean fails to establish any connection between Latin teaching and college enrollment. First, there is no evidence that those 80% students who go to college took Latin classes in high schools, the author does not make more specific description of the schooling so it is entirely possibly that only a little part of high school students study Latin at school, then the college enrollment would have nothing to do with Latin courses. Also, even assuming that every student in these 7 state high schools take Latin class, the argument is still not reliable. On one hand, the dean does not give any data from other high school in this state, so there is no comparison between the college enrollment of these 7 high schools and other high schools. Perhaps the enrollment rate in the whole state is very high, then 80% wouldn't be a relatively high rate of enrollment anymore, then the argument would be greatly weakened. On the other hand, even if 80% is a high rate of college enrollment, it is unfair to completely attribute it to Latin courses. Other factors may determine college enrollment as well. Maybe the teachers in these 7 schools are more skillful in teaching, which make their students more equipped. Or perhaps they enroll higher percentage of outstanding students from middle school, then it would be clear why they have more successful graduates.


The statement that providing more Latin courses will ensure a better education in critical thinking is also unreliable. On one hand, learning Latin is not the only way to improve critical thinking. Some other subject, such as mathematics, can also train students' logical thinking, so they can simply put more efforts on the teaching quality of these courses. Arranging more discussion in class is also a good way of critical thinking training. On the other hand, there is a slight different between 'preparing teachers to teach Latin' and equipping students with high standard of Latin language'. Simply providing more Latin courses cannot guarantee that students can get full master this language. Their language learning depends greatly on their interests, therefore the school would have to either pay more attention on Latin pedagogy or seek other ways to improve the average level of students' logical and critical thinking.


So far the whole argument has proved to be unwarranted as it stands. To strengthen the effectiveness of his recommendation, the author would have to present more solid information on all states high schools and take more schooling factors into account.