Self-paced
Ms. ██████ █ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ █████
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Summary
Ms. Smith is complaining about a mass punishment. Some kids were throwing raisins, so the school took away recess from the entire class for two days. Her son wasn't one of the raisin-throwers, and she says everyone knew who was responsible.
The principal responds with an analogy. He compares the son's situation to being stuck in a traffic jam caused by an accident. You didn't cause the accident, but you're still sitting there in traffic. Instead of giving a direct reason why the whole class needed to lose recess, he points to a situation where innocent people suffer through no fault of their own and says: same thing here.
2.
The principal's response to Ms. ███████ █████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
It makes a ██████████████ █████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████
The principal doesn't make a generalization about the children. He never claims they were all throwing raisins or that they share some trait that justifies the punishment. His whole point is that the son wasn't involved but still has to bear the consequences, just like a driver who wasn't in the accident.
b
It suggests that ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ████ █████████████ ██ ████ █████ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ████
The analogy isn't claiming that losing recess is as inconvenient as sitting in traffic. The comparison is structural: in both cases, an innocent person bears the consequences of someone else's actions. Whether the two inconveniences are equally severe has nothing to do with the principal's point.
c
It does not ███████████ ███ ████ ████ █ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████
This identifies the weak point in the analogy. A traffic jam after an accident just happens. No one chose to trap the other drivers; the wreck blocks the road and everyone behind it is stuck. The mass punishment, on the other hand, was a decision someone made. The school could have identified the raisin-throwers and punished only them, especially since Ms. Smith says it was obvious who they were. The principal's analogy only holds up if both situations are equally outside anyone's control, and they aren't. One is an unavoidable consequence; the other is a policy choice.
d
It assumes that ███ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████████
The principal isn't assuming Ms. Smith's son is guilty. The entire analogy concedes that the son wasn't involved. The traffic-jam comparison is built on the idea that innocent people sometimes get caught up in consequences they didn't cause. The principal is defending the punishment despite the son's innocence, not because he disputes it.
e
It attempts to ███████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ █████ █████ ███ █████████
The traffic jam isn't an irrelevant fact about the cafeteria incident. It's an analogy, a comparison to a different situation meant to justify the principal's position. The problem with the principal's response is that the analogy doesn't hold up, not that it introduces unrelated information about what happened in the cafeteria.