The following appeared in a memo from the chairperson of the school board in the town of Saluda For the past five years Mr Charles Schade has been the music director at Steel City High School and during that time the school band from Steel City High won t

In this letter, the chairperson of the school board concluded that Steel City High School has had some remarkable improvements such as winning regional band competition and enhancement in music rehearsal facilities since Mr.Charles Schade has been the music director at this school for the past five years; However, this conclusion cannot be accepted as it relies on a number of premises all of which can be challenged in three ways.

A threshold assumption upon which the letter relies is that Mr.Schade has triggered the school to win the regional band competition. The letter fails to state that these triumphs are due to his attempts. Maybe a professional advisor has been accompanying him and these achievements emanates mostly from him/her. Or, perhaps due to some economic problems in the state, families have forced their students to study with more efforts and these accomplishments are because of the students` attempts not Mr.Schade nor any other person at the school.

Another problem with the argument is that the writer assumes that the enhancement in quality of the music rehearsal facilities and music instruments are due to Mr.Schade `s activities during this period; However, there is no evidence to prove the truth of this assumption. Maybe, the state municipality has devoted more financial resources to music-related activities. Accordingly, all the schools have more money to equip their music facilities and even other parts of their educational system.

Even assuming that Mr.Schade has caused such improvements to Steel City High School, the author fails to express his greatness in the whole Saluda school system. Maybe he was already familiar with Steel City High School system, but we cannot generalize that Mr.Schade can cope with or handle the entire system since he was successful in one school. This means that other schools might have different educational approaches that he cannot be prosperous with the method which was used in Steel City High School.

In the final analysis, the writer`s conclusion cannot be taken to be correct because, as it was shown in the body paragraphs above, it depends on a number of assumptions each of which is questionable. Despite of the writer`s reasonings, the conclusion can only be accepted if the weaknesses already referred to are all removed.