Ensuring Quality Essays
Essay by calvinter • October 27, 2013 • Essay • 615 Words (3 Pages) • 1,201 Views
The Motzart School created an appealing advertisement for their music lessons. The audition-free admittance will appeal to novice musicians, the wide variety of lessons attracts practioners of more obscure instruments, and the outstanding faculty and alumni suggests a superior education system. However, due to the brevity of the excerpt, it made a few important assumptions about both the students and the school istelf that might make the school more or less attractive to pupils.
When the website advertises that it admits children even with undeveloped musical talent, it is implicitly implying that the prospective attendee is a music tyro. For less experienced children, this is certainly appealing. After all, no parent wants to have their child rejected in an audition and then have to find another school. It's much less intimidating for a neophyte if there is no worry of being accepted into the music program. However, if the parents have gifted children, then the argument isn't convincing. In fact, it might deter gifted children away. After all, if any novice can get into the Motzart School, how can parents be sure that the curriculum is advanced enough for advanced learners too? If the school educates inexperienced children, it's not clear if prodigious children will learn or be bored by a slow class pace. The argument is assuming this is not the case, but if it is the case then the ad risks turning the best pupils away from the academy.
Additonally, the argument makes unproved assumptions about the staff's teaching ability. It is true that the website makes a case for how talented the faculty are at performing music. However, this doesn't necessarily guarantee they will be good at teaching. In fact, in many fields, the illuminaries are often the worst at teaching. For example, John Nash was a brilliant mathematician, but had very poor communication skills and was consequently ineffective at teaching. Just because the faculty includes musicians, it doesn't mean they will be good instructors, because musical acumen and teaching aren't the same skill set. If there is no significant connection between these skills, which the website assumes, then parents have no reason to believe the faculty are any better than at other conservatories.
Finally, it makes an assumption that the parents are only concerned about quality of music instruction. Obviously, it's reasonable for the
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