The following appeared in a letter to the school board in the town of Centerville. All students should be required to take the driver's education course at Centerville High School. In the past two years, several accidents in and around Centerville have in

In the letter, the author suggests that all students should be required to take the driver’s education at Centerville High School. At first glance, the argument looks persuasive; however, unsubstantiated assumptions lead me to conclude that this argument is unsound on many grounds.

First of all, the author assumes that the lack of education for students drivers engendered accidents several accidents. However, the fact that teenagers drivers are involved in accidents cannot be generalized that teenagers were the reason of those accidents. It is possible that they were the victims of other drivers in traffic jams. Even if the author can deduce that those accidents were caused by teenagers, it is also hard to corroborate that it is due to the lack of education. In all likelihood, students may have old cars which can lead frequent technical problems due to the reason that they do not have enough money and bought used cars.

Another assumption that the author makes is that all students should be in the education course offered by Centerville High School to prevent further accidents. However, since not all of the students drive, it is not necessary to make the course mandatory. Furthermore, even if it is helpful to give information regarding cars and traffics to students who do not drive, the school need not to offer the course to every student in that some of them can learn from their parents or from driving schools. Since the author does not provide specific information on the number of parents who are on a tight budget or too busy to teach their children, it is unsound to say that all students need the education course at Centerville High School.

Last but not least, the author also assumes that his conclusion that the program is the only solution to the problem is not logical. Admittedly, an effective program which is substituted by the high school can be beneficial. However, it is far-fetched to say that this is the only solution in that there can be better way to ameliorate this problem. For example, the government can strengthen the law regarding speed limit or operate more shuttles to help students to commute. Also, since the school should hire people who can run the program and rent places to open the course, it is likely that the cost is exorbitant. Therefore, the author cannot assume that the education program is the only remedy to this problem.

In brief, this argument is unsound in many respects. In order to bolster the argument, the author needs to get rid of unwarranted assumptions and provide more specific evidence on his suggestion.