The argument counters the objection for extending the United States school year to bring it more in line with its European and Japanese counterparts by explaining that the objection misunderstands the reasoning behind why the United States had the tradition dating back from the nineteenth century of having a three month summer vacation.
The tradition was only set in place because the majority of schools were in rural areas where successful harvests depended on children's labor. Due to this, the argument concludes that if any policy could be justified by those appeals to tradition, it would be the policy of determining the length of the school year according to the needs of the economy.
So, as you can see, answer choice (C) clearly delineates how the argument counters the objection: "arguing for an alternative understanding of the nature of the United States tradition regarding the length of the school year," i.e. the fact that the majority of schools were in rural areas so child labor in the summer was needed for successful crops, and so a policy that would actually be justified by an appeal to tradition would be one of determining the length of the school year according to the needs of the economy.
Hope that was helpful! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
rexcolemanOctober 18, 2017
Hi Team:
Will you explain why answer choices B and E are not correct?
Thanks,
-Rex
halleraeMarch 19, 2018
Doesn't choice E follow the same pattern of reasoning, i.e. by bringing the United States school year in line with that of the rest of the industrialized world also caters to the needs of the economy?
rweyerApril 16, 2018
The issue with E is the use of the word industrialized. It's implying something that the passage never stated.
halleraeMay 5, 2018
Thanks, Randy!
GLEESeptember 12, 2018
Why does B not work? Thank you!
brittneymfrey@gmail.comOctober 1, 2018
Why not B? (for these questions that you claim to be extremely important to eliminate wrong answers, it would be very helpful to learn how to best eliminate with each practice question)
jstaffOctober 2, 2018
I'm also interested in what makes B an incorrect answer
Shiyi-ZhangFebruary 4, 2019
Why is B incorrect?
RaviFebruary 4, 2019
@Rex, @hallerae, @rweyer, @GLEE, @brittneymfrey@gmail.com, @jstaff, and @Shiyi-Zhang,
Happy to help! You guys are asking about why (B) and (E) are wrong. Let's take a look.
The basic gist of this argument is that some people want to lengthen the American school year, which would reduce the length of summer vacation. There are people who object to this, and they say summer vacation is tradition. However, the author doesn't think this criticism is valid. The author argues that we have summer vacations because in the past, children were needed to help out on farms throughout the summer. The actual tradition is adjusting the school schedule to the needs of the economy.
In the argument, the author challenges what makes up tradition. The people who object to a longer school year/short summer break believe that summer vacation itself is a tradition. The author argues that the tradition isn't the vacation itself...it's the policy underlying the vacation.
We're looking for an answer choice that describes how the author counters the objection.
(B) says the author calls into question the relevance of information about historical practices to current dispute about proposed social change.
However, history might be relevant. In fact, the author cites a historical fact regarding the reasons for summer vacation as evidence for their argument. Because of this, we know that the author is not calling into question the relevance of information about historical practices since the author is using this information to support their argument.
(E) says demonstrating that tradition justifies bringing the United States school year in line with that of the rest of the industrialized world.
The author believes that tradition doesn't warrant continuing to keep long summer vacations. The author never states why America should lengthen the school year or why tradition says we should lengthen it. The tradition, according to the author, is setting the school year's length according to the needs of the economy. What're the economic needs of America today?
Does this make sense to you guys? If you have more questions, let us know!
