Logical Reasoning

PT122 · S1 · Q6 Patti: Most parents are eager

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Patti: Most parents are eager for their preschoolers to learn as much as possible.

Conclusion (Therefore)

Directing a preschooler's learning toward the parents' own concerns is unlikely to improve the child's preschool education.

Evidence

Children are naturally curious and learn an enormous amount just by growing and adapting to the world.

Evaluate

The evidence seems to suggest that kids would be fine without parents' guidance, since they will learn a bunch just via their own curiosity, as they grow and adapt to the world.

The fact that they would still learn stuff without parents' guidance is a strong way to show that parents' guidance is unlikely to improve their education.

LSAT students would learn a bunch about LSAT just by self-studying, and using their own curiosity to assimilate things about the test. But that doesn't mean that guidance from books / teachers / classes is unlikely to improve their journey.

Goal

We could see a Missing Link style answer that is sort of like, .

Or we could see a Defender answer that's more like,

6.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which Patti's argument depends?

  1. Parents who use the type

    Out of Scope

    The argument is only about the cause / effect relationship of whether directed learning improves / doesn't improve outcomes for the kid's education. The argument doesn't need to assume anything about the causal backstory behind why parents want to do directed learning.

    3% picked this

  2. Children will have difficulty adapting

    Opposite (if anything)

    This would weaken the argument, so it's definitely not being assumed. It would weaken the argument if we said "kids aren't able to do their magical grow / adapt without parental guidance", since that would be a way to defend the benefit of directed learning.

    4% picked this

  3. The type of directed learning

    Opposite

    Again, this would weaken. This makes directed learning sound like a good thing, which is the opposite of what the author is arguing.

    6% picked this

  4. Correct

    The type of directed learning

    Why this is right

    Since this has the lovable Defender "not" next to the verb, we just remove the "not" and ask ourself whether that negation would weaken. The author is saying directed learning is probably useless since what really matters is kids' learning via growing and adapting to the world. The negation would say, "Sure, but directed learning is a necessary part of that process of growing and adapting to the world. So it is likely to improve a kids preschool education, because without it they wouldn't grow and adapt to the world." It's sort of a silly answer, but it's essentially saying the author is assuming that the method she's rejecting isn't a necessary component of the method she's endorsing.

    Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    82% picked this

  5. General opportunities to learn are

    Out of Scope

    The argument is talking about preschoolers and their parents, not about formal schooling (preschool isn't actual school). If we negate this and say, "general opportunities to learn will be typical of those first few years of K-6", it wouldn't clearly weaken. Maybe we could defend parents doing directed learning by saying, "Hey, author, they'll get plenty of general opportunities to learn once they start actual school, so let the parents do this directed learning in the meantime." But you could also defend the author by saying, "see ... formal schooling also recognizes the value of providing general opportunities for young learners."

    5% picked this

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