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发表于 2005-8-10 14:52:51
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Argument174: 506 words about 35 minutes
The following recommendation was made by the president and administrative staff of Grove College, a private institution, to the college's governing committee.
'We recommend that Grove College preserve its century-old tradition of all-female education rather than admit men into its programs. It is true that a majority of faculty members voted in favor of coeducation, arguing that it would encourage more students to apply to Grove. But eighty percent of the students responding to a survey conducted by the student government wanted the school to remain all female, and over half of the alumni who answered a separate survey also opposed coeducation. Keeping the college all-female, therefore, will improve morale among students and convince alumni to keep supporting the college financially.'
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Should Grove College adopt the coeducation policy suggested by the majority of faculty member or remain all female as the arguer advised? It is an issue needed carefully examination. To support his conclusion, the arguer cite statistics from surveys among students and alumni, and claims that keeping all-female will improve morale among students and convince alumni to keep supporting the college financially. The argument seems logical at the first glimpse, but it can hardly bear further consideration, for it suffers form several flaws.
Firstly, the arguer assumes that most of the students in Grove College want it to remain all-female, according to the result of a survey conducted by the student government. In the survey, eighty percent of students responding wanted the school to remain all-female. But we can not say for sure that the survey reflects the desire of most of the students actually. Maybe the students took part in the survey are precisely the ones' who advocate all-female schooling, while the ones who reject it were accidentally excluded in the survey. Or maybe the student government is composed of a group of students who fevers all-female schooling and they juggle the result of the survey. Without precluding the situations above, the arguer cannot persuade me that most students in Grove prefer all-female education.
And, admitting that most of the students prefer all-female schooling, the arguer can not say for sure that remain all-female will necessarily improve the morale of the students. There are many other reason can affect the morale of the students, such as the environment of the campus, the quality of the courses, the variety of social activities, the situation of the dormitory. It is very possible that the low morale among the students is due to the reasons above, and remaining all-female will do little to help improve the morale. In addition, the students cannot fairly compare coeducation to all-female schooling, for they haven’t got the opportunity to study with the male students after they entered college. It is very possible that the low morale of the students results from lack of proper communication with the male students in the same age rank. In that case, reversing to coeducation may efficiently solve the problem.
Thirdly, the arguer can not convince me that the alumni will stop supporting financially if the college shifts to coeducation policy. Similarly, the survey among the alumni may fail to mirror the will of the alumni. Even if most of the alumni oppose coeducation, no evidence show that they would stop financing the college after it reverses to coeducation. They maybe continue giving money because they love the college so deeply, however it has changed. And it is also possible that seeing the advantages of coeducation, more alumni will begin to support the college financially.
All in all, this argument is not reasonable as it stands. Further investigation should be done before the college decides which kind of education they should provide in order to best satisfy the need of the students as well as gain more support from the alumni.
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[ Last edited by staralways on 2005-8-10 at 15:06 ] |
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