issue51+argue5

woodenriceUID: 2302372

TOPIC: ISSUE51 - "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."
WORDS: 494          TIME: 0:40:00          DATE: 2007-3-16
   Is education truly effective only when it is sepcifically designed to meet the individual needs and interest of each student? I'm sure most students who love some of their causes while have difficaulties in learning others would say yes, and the most parents would say no. In my view, however, this idea of specifically design education plan for individuals is just like the coin-it has advantages and disadcantages at the same time.
   To begin with, the advantages of designed-for-individual education are obvirous: it allows students to learn what they need and interested in alone, rather than wasting their time on useless causes. For example, for a student who shows interests in painting, to force him /her to learn physics or advanced mathmatics is probably wasting his /her time-and this is what the current education is doing- while in a disigned-for-individual education plan, he /her could have used this time to practise painting.
   Also for students adapt different learning methods, this kind of education system could ensure that they learn in the most efficient way. For instance, some students like to learn by read and think themselves, while some others may preffer listening to lectures or learning by discussing. In the current education system both kinds of students have to adapt one learning method, usually listening only. But in an education planned for every single student, they could choose how to learn: students perffer reading would be supplied advice about what to read, and students love listenging could go to lectures or discuss.
   Nevertheless, the disadvantages of such kind of secially designed education  are as obvirous as the advantages. A threshold problem is it is too difficult to tell what a student really need to and want to learn when thry are still children, because during the process they grow up, their interests probably change.
To certain extant, determining what to learn at young age means the students would not have any chance to change in the afterward years. But the true interest of a person would probably be found by this person years after the school age. If a student desided to be an scientist when he /her was in the primary school suddenly find he /she nolonger has any interest in science and have not any time to study other subjects from the beginning, what should he /her do? Give up?
   Furthermore, such designed-for-individual education systems would cost much more than the current one. Carrying out such education ststems means the society would need much more teachers, and each teacher would have to spend much time for each of their students, also the equipments of schools needs to meet the new system. All of this cost. Maybe in the future computer based education could solve the problem, but now, it is a problem.
   In sum, it is true that designing education specially for individuals would improve the effect of educating, but unfortunately it also comes along with side-effects that might destroy the effect.  
  

TOPIC: ARGUMENT5 - The following appeared in the business section of a newspaper.
"Given that the number of people in our country with some form of arthritis is expected to rise from 40 million to 60 million over the next twenty years, pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs for the treatment of arthritis should be very profitable. Many analysts believe that in ten years Becton Pharmaceuticals, which makes Xenon, the best-selling drug treatment for arthritis, will be the most profitable pharmaceutical company. But the patent on Xenon expires in three years, and other companies will then be able to produce a cheaper version of the drug. Thus, it is more likely that in ten years the most profitable pharmaceutical company will be Perkins Pharmaceuticals, maker of a new drug called Xylan, which clinical studies show is preferred over Xenon by seven out of ten patients suffering from the most extreme cases of arthritis."
WORDS: 348          TIME: 0:25:00          DATE: 2007-3-16
  In this argument, the author comes to the conclusion that Perkins Pharmaceuticals (PP) would become the most profit drug manufactor, because its new drug is more effective in curing most extreme arthritis, and one of the drug's main competitor, another drug produced by Becton Pharmaceuticals (BP), could be out of the patent in three years. Suffering several flaws, this argument is persuasiveless as it states.
  A threshold problem is that, although Xylan (XY), the production of PP, is more effective than the Xenon(X) made by BP in extreme cases of arthritis, this fact does not lead to the author's assumption that Xylan would be the best-seller for the next ten tears. However, the author does not provide any evidence to show in the increasing of arthritis cases, extreme ones would take a main part. So it is possible that although XY is better on curing extreme cases, it is not so popular because most cases would be common ones. This conclusion is unrel
Moreover, claiming that the BP could not profit anymore because other companies could produce a cheaper version of X after the patent expires, the author overlooks the possibility that X is not the only drug that BP produces. Perhaps after X, BP would put other drugs into the market. It is true that without patent on X, BP could not profit on X any longer, but BP could profit on other drugs. Thus this conclusion is unconvincing.
  Furthermore, the author simplifies the competetion by assuming there are only two competetors, BP and PP ,in the market. While it is entirely possibile that there are other companies who want to benifit in making drugs for arthitis. Therefore, even if there is evidence to show that PP could profit more than BP , it is still presumpous to say PP would be the most profit drug manufactor in the following ten years.
  In sum, this argument is weak. To better support the argument, the author needs to provide more information about the competetion in the market, and more reliable comparision of drugs produced by PP and BP.