Although elementary school children have traditionally received considerable instruction in creating visual art, there has been no such instruction in...
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
Although elementary school children have traditionally received considerable instruction in creating visual art, there has been no such instruction in music. Consequently, in contrast to the situation for visual art, most people as adults do not recognize the artistic intention of composers. To remedy this situation, a few educators now recommend teaching elementary schools students to compose music.
Which of the following, if true, is the strongest basis for arguing that implementation of the recommendation will not lead to the desired result?
Passage Analysis:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
| Although elementary school children have traditionally received considerable instruction in creating visual art, there has been no such instruction in music. |
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| Consequently, in contrast to the situation for visual art, most people as adults do not recognize the artistic intention of composers. |
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| To remedy this situation, a few educators now recommend teaching elementary schools students to compose music. |
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Argument Flow:
The argument starts by comparing education (visual art gets taught, music composition doesn't), then claims this creates a problem (adults don't understand composers' intentions), and finally presents a proposed solution (teach kids to compose music).
Main Conclusion:
Teaching elementary students to compose music will help adults better recognize composers' artistic intentions.
Logical Structure:
The argument uses a cause-and-effect chain: lack of music composition education → poor understanding of musical artistic intention → solution is to add music composition education. The logic assumes that the same educational approach that worked for visual art will work for music.
Prethinking:
Question type:
Weaken - We need to find information that would reduce belief in the conclusion that teaching elementary students to compose music will help adults recognize composers' artistic intentions.
Precision of Claims
The argument makes a causal claim: lack of music composition instruction in elementary school causes adults to not recognize composers' artistic intentions. The proposed solution assumes teaching composition will fix this specific problem.
Strategy
Look for scenarios that break the assumed connection between 'learning to compose music as a child' and 'recognizing artistic intention in composers' works as an adult.' We want to show that even if we implement the recommendation, we still won't get the desired result of adults understanding what composers are trying to achieve artistically.
'Few elementary schools students are likely to create superior compositions.' This misses the point entirely. We don't need kids to become great composers - we just need them to learn enough about composition to better understand what composers are trying to achieve artistically. The quality of student compositions isn't relevant to whether they'll develop better appreciation skills as adults.
'Traditional education facilitates the appreciation of visual art, but not the recognition of the artistic intentions of artists.' This directly attacks the argument's foundation. The argument assumes that visual art education successfully teaches people to recognize artistic intentions, which is why people are supposedly better with visual art than music. But if visual art education also fails to teach recognition of artistic intentions, then copying this approach for music won't solve the problem. This breaks the cause-and-effect chain the argument relies on.
'More people report that they enjoy music than report that they enjoy visual art.' Enjoyment and recognition of artistic intention are completely different things. We can enjoy something without understanding the creator's artistic goals. This doesn't challenge whether teaching composition would help people recognize what composers are trying to achieve.
'Some composers have had little formal instruction in composition.' This is irrelevant to whether teaching composition to elementary students would help them later recognize artistic intentions. The fact that some composers are self-taught doesn't mean that composition instruction wouldn't help students develop appreciation skills.
'The recommendation is based on the results of a controlled longitudinal study conducted in three schools within a single city.' This actually supports the recommendation rather than weakening it. Having research backing makes the recommendation more credible, not less likely to work. A controlled study suggests the recommendation has some evidence behind it.