#4 - Editorial: Some primary schools’ early education

[Dana D]

Complete question explanation


Principle Question, Strengthen. The correct answer is (D).

The editorial states that we should be suspicious of reading programs which pay children to read outside of class because they might view reading as a chore rather than a source of satisfaction. We are looking for an answer choice that has a principle which, when applied to the stimulus, most strongly supports the editorial's reasoning.

The author thinks children regarding reading as a chore rather than a source of satisfaction is a negative outcome. We should be suspicious of programs which will cause kids to regard reading as a chore, but why? The author seems to think kids getting satisfaction from reading is important, but we need an answer choice that would tie that idea to the overall goal of the reading program, because otherwise it seems like paying kids to read would achieve the purpose of the program.

Answer Choice (A). If this was true, kids might still view the reading program as a chore, and it doesn't say anything about if they will enjoy reading. Maybe the program mandates that kids read challenging books and pays them - we still don't know why we should mistrust this type of program.

Answer Choice (B). The stimulus doesn't say anything about forced choice - kids could get paid to read and pick the book they want to read, so again we are not told why we should be suspicious of the practice of paying kids to read.

Answer Choice (C). Irrelevant - whether or not parents play a role does not help us understand why we should be suspicious of pay-to-read programming.

Answer Choice (D) This is the correct answer. If the goal of reading programs is to instill a love of reading, then it absolutely matters that paying them to read might result in kids viewing reading as a chore rather than a source of satisfaction. This practice would undermine the overall goal of reading programs, and thus we should be suspicious of employing money as an incentive.

Answer Choice (E). We don't know for sure that offering a pay incentive will improve children's facility with reading - maybe kids are more motivated than ever before to read outside of class because they want to earn money, but they are still struggling to read and finish books. This doesn't give us a reason to be suspicious of the programs themselves.

[eg_m]

I got the answer correct simply because it's the least bad answer choice, but I really did not feel happy about picking D and didn't feel confident that I got it right.

It's asking us to strengthen her reasoning.
Her reasoning is:
Paying kids to read might make them see reading as a chore instead of as something satisfying. Schools are paying kids to read, so we should be suspicious of this program.

Saying "the goal of reading programs should be about love for reading" doesn't really strengthen her argument that 1) It might make them see it as a chore and 2) that we should be suspicious.

Shouldn't a better answer here be something that strengthens the cause-effect idea that being paid to do something lowers the satisfaction one gets from doing that thing?

I just want to hear if the correct answer choice is actually a fine answer and I'm just missing how it strengthens her argument.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi eg_m,

Remember our goal for strengthen isn't to prove the argument, just to help it. So while you may think of tons of better ways to improve the argument, as long as the answer choice helps the argument in some way, it's correct.

Here, we have a conclusion that we should view these reading programs as suspicious. They may improve reading, but they might also make kids think reading is a chore instead of fun.

We want to link the ideas of reading being a chore with reading program is suspicious. Answer choice (D) does that for us by stating that the goal of reading programs at that age should be to instill a love of reading. Making reading seem like a chore does not seem like a great way to instill a love of reading. Thus, answer choice (D) strengthens our argument.

Let's take a look at the incorrect choices.

Answer choice (A): This does not strengthen our argument because we don't know anything about challenging and non-challenging books.

Answer choice (B): Again here, we don't know anything about book choice. It's irrelevant to our conclusion.

Answer choice (C): Since we don't know the involvement of parents or teachers in the program, this answer choice also does not impact our conclusion.

Answer choice (E): This would arguably hurt the argument. If the children love reading because they are more comfortable with it, it seems like the program may actually improve love of reading.

Hope that helps!
Rachael