The merger of the Raleigh and Wake County schools in 1976 was charged with race. The city schools had been increasingly enrolled with a larger percentage of minority students and the county schools were mostly white. The merger faced much public opposition, but Raleigh leaders including Tom Bradshaw, a still-active popular former mayor, and the late and legendary Willie York had gumption and pushed the issue up the hill. A steep hill. Today, race and poverty still are defining issues in public education, evidenced by what appears to be the resegregation of Wake County schools. Once a model of diversity, and praised and emulated nationally for its efforts to achieve racial and economic balance in schools, the system is run by good people with bad choices. As reported by The News & Observer’s Keung Hui and David Raynor, Wake is seeing more racial and economic imbalance, with some schools having huge percentages of students in the category of needing free and reduced-price lunches, something virtually all experts know is not good in terms of academic performance. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds do better if they are not isolated among themselves. And the board finds itself with suburban schools that are overwhelmingly white. That’s hardly what leaders had in mind with desegregated schools, which were supposed to expose students to a school “society” that was much like the one in which they’d live and work. But the county school board is in a quandary not of its making. Economic diversity is one of the four “pillars” the board considered in approving a new but modest plan for reassigning students to newly opened schools. But the goal of diversity in schools is increasingly offset by housing patterns in which suburban communities, especially is western Wake, lack affordable housing and transportation options for low-income people. Now the board is running out of tools that keep the housing patterns from being mirrored in the schools. Busing to help build economic diversity is still done, but less of it. Magnet schools have been used to draw students into areas that once would have had primarily minority schools, and they’ve worked pretty well, though they alone can’t halt a trend toward resegregation in a school district growing by 3,000 students a year. The Wake school board, a progressive group, has to worry that returning to more busing would lead to parents pulling their kids from mainstream public schools and putting them into charters or private schools. This concern has produced a worrisome choice for school board members: Increase busing and reassignments and alienate some parents or hold busing to a minimum and accept a partial resegregation of schools. Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article31497476.html#storylink=cpy P1) Merger of city and county schools in 1976, unpopular with many, decreased racial and economic segregation S1) The merger faced public opposition S2) Wake County leaders pushed the legislation through S3) Wake County became a model of diversity P2) Racial / Economic imbalance hurts students S1) Race and poverty still are defining issues in public education S2) One major indicator of a segregated school is the percentage of students on free/reduced lunch. Some schools have large percentages of students in this category. S3) Segregated schools result in poor performance for poor / minority students S4) Isolation of disadvantaged students not good for their academic development P3) Though “economic diversity” is one of pillars of the student assignment plan, housing patterns and rapid growth challenge the effectiveness of traditional tools S1) Western Wake lacks affordable housing and public transportation, so it is particularly segregated S2) Busing still effective, but not popular with residents S3) Magnet schools are popular, but cannot solely reverse the trend C) While wanting the best for every child regardless of race or economic status, housing trends in Wake county leave good people with bad choices. The school board members must either accept partial resegregation and the negative impacts on poor and minority children or risk alienating some parents (voters). Critical Thinking Chapter 7 Analyzing Arguments McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved. Analyzing Shorter Arguments You can analyze shorter arguments by numbering the premises and conclusion, and representing their relationships with arrows. ◼ Example: (C) The death penalty should be abolished because (P1) it is racially discriminatory (P2) it is not a deterrent and (P3) innocent people are sometimes executed by mistake. ◼ 7-2 The difference between independent support and dependent (linked) support. ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ Take two statements that support a third. If the removal of one of the statements indicates that the third is no longer supported—if the one statement by itself doesn’t support the third—then the two statements are dependent (linked). Example: (P1) Most Democrats are liberals. (P2) Dumdiddle is a Democrat. Therefore (C) Dumdiddle is a liberal. Since the mere fact that most Democrats are liberals doesn’t tell us anything about Dumdiddle… And since Dumdiddle being a Democrat doesn’t tell us that Dumdiddle is a liberal (unless we already know (P1))… 7-3 The difference between independent support and dependent (linked) support. ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ If two statements support a third, but the removal of one doesn’t prevent the other from support the third, we say they provide independent support of the conclusion. Example: (P1) Ten witness say that Blotto robbed the Bank (P2) Blotto’s fingerprints were found on the note the robber handed to the teller. (C) Therefore Blotto robbed the bank. Since (P1) is good reason by itself to conclude (C) and Since (P2) is good reason by itself to conclude (C) 7-4 Tips for Diagramming ◼ ◼ ◼ Find the conclusion first. Pay attention to premise and conclusion indicators. Remember that “sentences” don’t always express a single statement.  Sometimes they express more than one (watch out for “and”) ◼ ◼  Sometimes they don’t express anything at all. ◼ ◼ If I win the lottery I will move to Tahiti ◼  Error! Either (1) Boston will win or (2) Cleveland will win. Don’t number or diagram any sentence that is not a statement. Leave out irrelevant statements.  ◼ Error! If (1) I win the lottery (2) I will move to Tahiti. Either Boston will win or Cleveland will win ◼ ◼ e.g., What time is it? Don’t break up conditional (if, then) or disjunctive (either, or) statements; they express one thought.  ◼ e.g., “They are never on time and they smell” should be broken up: (1) They are never on time and (2) they smell. Sometimes people include statements that count neither for nor against the conclusion; just leave that stuff out! If it doesn’t support the conclusion, don’t diagram it like it does. Don’t diagram redundant statements. If the same thing is said twice, just represent it in the diagram once. 7-5 Argument Summaries; Standardization ◼ Diagramming longer arguments becomes tedious; it is better to summarize them. Here we will learn a few skills for doing so:  Paraphrasing  Finding missing premises and conclusions 7-6 Paraphrasing ◼ ◼ It’s difficult to lay down guidelines that teach “how” to paraphrase if you don’t already have the basic idea, but here are some helpful hints. Be accurate: don’t misrepresent (like straw man)  e.g., Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have no, or a very remote relation to ours. ◼ ◼ ◼ Error: Europe’s vital interests are totally different than ours. Ok: Europe has a set of vital interests which are of little or no concern to us. Be clear: Take un-clarity and make it clear.  e.g., High-quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process.  Paraphrase: Kids need good schools to learn properly. 7-7 Paraphrasing ◼ Be Concise: get to the bare essentials.  e.g., The office wasn’t open at that point in time, owing to the fact that there was no electrical power in the building.  Paraphrase: The office was closed then because there was no electricity in the building. ◼ Be Charitable: Again, don’t straw man.  e.g., Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer. Therefore, if you continue to smoke, you are endangering your health.  Bad paraphrase: Cigarette smoking guarantees that you will get lung cancer. Continue to smoke and you will be unhealthy.  Good paraphrase: Cigarette smoking is a positive causal factor that increases the risk of lung cancer. If you continue to smoke, you risk being unhealthy. 7-8 Finding missing premises and conclusions. ◼ People often leave premises or conclusions out of their arguments. Such arguments are called “Enthymemes” (ĕn'thəmēms‘)   ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ e.g., You’re under 21. Therefore I can’t sell you beer. Missing premise: “I can’t sell beer to anyone under 21.” Identifying missing premises: If there isn’t enough to support the conclusion, determine what is needed to support the conclusion. Identify missing conclusions: If the statements entail something, but that thing is not stated, there is a missing conclusion. Be faithful to the arguer: Don’t put in anything that contradicts what they already said. Be charitable. Make sure the premise you add doesn’t make the argument worse. 7-9 Summarizing Extended Arguments: What To Do ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ ◼ Read carefully; identify the main conclusion (or if it is missing). Omit unnecessary/irrelevant material Number the steps; put the conclusion last. Fill in any missing premises or conclusions. Add parenthetical justifications (1,2) for each sub-conclusion and the conclusion. 7-10 Summarizing Extended Arguments: What To Avoid ◼ Don’t write in incomplete sentences  Error: 1. 2.  Correct: 1. 2. ◼ Because animals can experience pain and suffering. Therefore, it’s wrong to kill or mistreat animals. (from 1) Animals can experience pain an suffering. Therefore, it’s wrong to kill or mistreat animals. (from 1) Don’t include more than one statement per line. ◼ ◼ Error: The president should resign since he no longer enjoys the confidence of the Board of Trustees. Correct: 1. 2. The president no longer enjoys the confidence of the Board of Trustees. Therefore, the president should resign. (from 1) 7-11 Summarizing Extended Arguments: What To Avoid Don’t include non-statements. ◼ ◼ Error: 1. 2. ◼ Democrats and Republicans are all the same. Therefore, why should I care about politics? (from 1) Correct: 1. 2. Democrats and Republicans are all the same. Therefore, I have no reason to care about politics. (from 1) Don’t include anything that is not a premise or a conclusion. ◼ ◼ Error: 1. 2. 3. 4. ◼ Many people argue that capital punishment is morally wrong. But the Good Book says, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” What the Good Book says is true. Therefore, capital punishment is not morally wrong. (from 2,3) (1) might be more motivation for giving the argument, but it doesn’t support the conclusion, so leave it out of the standardized argument.7-12 Practice – 7.4, #1, p 188 P1 - Asking the question “Will this be on the exam?” indicates that your main interest is in getting through the course with a good grade rather than in learning what the instructor has to teach. P2 - The question frustrates the teacher who has worked hard to put you in a position to appreciate the material—its intrinsic interest, its subtlety, its complexity. 7-13 P3 – This question reveals students are missing the purpose of education. C - Therefore, you should not ask, nor be tempted to ask, the question: “Will this be on the exam?” 7-14
Purchase answer to see full attachment