Self-study
Parent P: Children will need computer skills to deal with tomorrow's world. █████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ███████
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Summarize Argument
Parent Q concludes that computers should not be introduced in kindergarten and taught throughout high school. Why? Because of technology’s rapid progress, which means particular devices and languages used by students will not be used when those children are adults.
Notable Assumptions
Parent Q assumes there’s no other reason that learning on today’s computers and with today’s languages would be useful to students, besides using those same devices and languages later in life.
4.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██████ █ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████
a
When technology is █████████ ████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ██████ ██ █ █████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ██████
This does not counter parent Q’s objection. It introduces regular training as a condition for adults to have computer skills, but doesn’t imply people will benefit from training as students.
b
Throughout history people ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██ █████████
This doesn’t say that learning about computers throughout school would be useful to students. Students’ ability to adapt does not itself justify their studying skills that will become obsolete in the future.
c
In the process ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████████ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ███████████
This refutes parent Q’s assumption that learning computer skills will only be useful if students use the exact same technologies as adults. It implies those skills will be transferrable to later computer technologies.
d
Automotive technology is ███████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███ ████████████
This analogy presents a weak counter to parent Q’s claim. It’s possible the way people interact with computers will change more significantly than the way people interact with vehicles.
e
Once people have █████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ █████████ ██████
This gives a reason to support parent P’s conclusion, but does not address the objection raised by parent Q. If students are learning irrelevant skills, their training will be pointless regardless of how much time they have to learn them.