The following is an excerpt from a letter sent by the principal of Greenwood School to the parents of all incoming kindergartners.
"We have decided to institute a policy of all-day kindergarten, instead of half-day kindergarten, for all students at Greenwood School. All-day kindergarten will help all our students achieve at their highest levels. The classes will be 'tracked'; so that average students are together, but high-achieving and low-achieving students will be put together in classes. In this way, the high-achieving students will be able to help pull the low-achieving students up to their level, so that no student falls behind. The all-day kindergarten classes will cover the same material previously covered in the half-day kindergarten classes, but will go at a slower speed to accommodate learning differences. In addition, the students will receive extra instruction in music, art, and physical education. One of the greatest benefits of the plan, however, is that students will be in a structured environment for longer hours, reducing the numbers of hours that otherwise would be wasted at home or in day care."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The principal of Greenwood School informs parents of kindergarteners about the latest changes in the school policies such as the timing and the pace of the school's new curriculum.
The first rule change happens to be the timing of the school, from being a half-day to an "all-day" kindergarten. The principal does not specify timings in his letter nor explain how the food breaks are assigned. Whether the food will be provided by the school or if the parents are supposed to send along multiple lunch boxes. Which again adds to the distress of the parents. Proper breaks and nutrition are crucial to the growing, learning kids. Otherwise they would get restless and the whole purpose of education is lost.
While the classes are strategically planned with the segregation, this might result in alienation of the children instead of teaching them to accept each other. They must get the sense of being inclusive and should spend their time harmoniously with each other. But due to the separation, they might feel inadequate and turn introverted, when the parents are hoping for the opposite. This new change could also distance them from their previous peers and that could make them unhappy which would most definitely effect their studies.
The pace of the syllabus taught should be constant while keeping the students in mind, otherwise the standardisation is lost. Each child has different learning capabilities and hence, can not be generalised. Therefore, it is a better idea to keep a standard speed while teaching and offer extra help when required.
Too much of structured environment can also be detrimental to the state of minds of the children. It could hinder them from exploring and experimenting more. What are children if the wonder in their bright eyes is lost?
All we can hope for is that the principal takes feedback from the parents and rethinks his policies. Everyone wants the best for the children of the nation.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 323 350
No. of Characters: 1581 1500
No. of Different Words: 186 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.239 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.895 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.603 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 106 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 81 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 59 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.544 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.579 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.285 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.554 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.077 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 125, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...to an 'all-day' kindergarten. The principal does not specify timings in h...
^^^
Line 3, column 339, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Which” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...sed to send along multiple lunch boxes. Which again adds to the distress of the paren...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 459, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Otherwise,
... crucial to the growing, learning kids. Otherwise they would get restless and the whole p...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 43, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'takes'' or 'take's'?
Suggestion: takes'; take's
...l we can hope for is that the principal takes feedback from the parents and rethinks ...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, if, so, therefore, while, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 13.6137724551 44% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 55.5748502994 68% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 16.3942115768 49% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1643.0 2260.96107784 73% => OK
No of words: 323.0 441.139720559 73% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.0866873065 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.23936324884 4.56307096286 93% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79204446126 2.78398813304 100% => OK
Unique words: 182.0 204.123752495 89% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.56346749226 0.468620217663 120% => OK
syllable_count: 475.2 705.55239521 67% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 35.3740597009 57.8364921388 61% => OK
Chars per sentence: 86.4736842105 119.503703932 72% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.0 23.324526521 73% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.05263157895 5.70786347227 53% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.181206062706 0.218282227539 83% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0445533206558 0.0743258471296 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0667679607881 0.0701772020484 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0945629648605 0.128457276422 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0750883059352 0.0628817314937 119% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.0 14.3799401198 76% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 48.3550499002 130% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 12.197005988 71% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.95 12.5979740519 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.24 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 77.0 98.500998004 78% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.