For more than forty years, a controlling insight in my educational

Question

For more than forty years, a controlling insight in my educational philosophy has been the recognition that no one has ever been—no one can ever be—educated in school or college. That would be the case if our schools and colleges were at their very best, which they certainly are not, and even if the students were among the best and the brightest, as well as conscientious in the application of their powers. The reason is simply that youth itself—immaturity—is an insuperable obstacle to becoming educated. Schooling is for the young. Education comes later, usually much later. The very best thing for our schools to do is to prepare the young for continued learning in later life by giving them the skills of learning and the love of it.

To speak of an educated young person or of a wise young person, rich in the understanding of basic ideas and issues, is as much a contradiction in terms as to speak of a round square. The young can be prepared for education in the years to come, but only mature men and women can become educated, beginning the process in their forties and ffties and reaching some modicum of genuine insight, sound judgment and practical wisdom after they have turned sixty.

Those who take this prescription seriously would, of course, be better off if their schooling had given them the intellectual discipline and skill they need to carry it out, and if it also had introduced them to the world of learning with some appreciation of its basic ideas and issues. But even the individual who is fortunate enough to leave school or college with a mind so disciplined, and with an abiding love of learning, would still have a long road to travel before he or she became an educated person. If our schools and colleges were doing their part and adults were doing theirs, all would be well. However, our schools and colleges are not doing their part because they are trying to do everything else. And adults are not doing their part because most are under the illusion that they had completed their education when they fnished their schooling.

Only the person who realizes that mature life is the time to get the education that no young person can ever acquire is at last on the high road to learning. The road is steep and rocky, but it is the high road, open to anyone who has skill in learning and the ultimate goal of all learning in view—understanding the nature of things and man’s place in the total scheme. An educated person is one who through the travail of his own life has assimilated the ideas that make him representative of his culture, that make him a bearer of its traditions and enable him to contribute to its improvement.

This passage was written by Mortimer J. Adler, author and former chairman of the board of directors of Encyclopedia Britannica and co-founder of The Center for the Study of The Great Ideas.      1  
 1. The author’s primary purpose in writing this passage is to

(A) Highlight major tenets in educational philosophy in the last 40 years.
(B) Raise public awareness for the need of teachers with training in the liberal arts.
(C) Contrast the words schooling and education.
(D) Suggest that youth stands in the way of one becoming educated.
(E) Cite the importance of reading with active discussion.

2  
 2. According to the passage, the best thing that our schools can do is to

(A) Improve academic instruction at the grass roots level.
(B) Advocate using the word “education” in place of the word “schooling” to better convey to adults the goal of teaching.
(C) Convey to students that only through high scholastic achievement can one become truly educated.
(D) Implement closely the opinions of adults who have already been through the educational process.
(E) Help students acquire the skills for learning.

3  
 3. It can be inferred from the passage that the educated person must

(A) Possess more maturity than passion.
(B) Not be less than 40 years of age.
(C) Be at least a university graduate.
(D) Have read classic works of literature.
(E) Have traveled widely in order to understand his or her own culture.

4  
 4. Which of the following pairs of words most closely describe the author’s attitude toward adults as mentioned in the passage?

A) Uninformed participants
B) Unfortunate victims
C) Conscientious citizens
D) Invaluable partners
E) Disdainful culprits

5  
 5. How is this passage organized?

(A) An objective analysis is put forth supported by factual examples.
(B) A single idea is presented with which the author does not agree.
(C) A thesis is presented and support given for it.
(D) Two ideas are contrasted and a conciliatory viewpoint emerges.
(E) A popular viewpoint is criticized from a number of perspectives.

Source: Chili Hot GMAT

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

1. The author’s primary purpose in writing this passage is to

Explanation

Choice A  is too general because a discussion of educational philosophy in the last forty years would likely incorporate the viewpoints of many individuals, not just the author’s viewpoint.

Choice B  is outside the passage’s scope. We do not necessarily know whether or not teachers should receive more liberal arts training.

Choice C  is a correct statement within the passage’s context. However, it is too detailed to satisfy the primary purpose as demanded by this overview question. For an overview question, there are effectively five reasons why wrong answers could be wrong. An answer choice will either be outside a passage’s scope, opposite in meaning, distorted in meaning, too general, or too detailed. Whereas  choice C  was too detailed,  choice A  is an overly general answer choice. It is very useful to be on the lookout for  “out of the scope” -type answers. This was the fate of answer  choices B and E . Note that opposites or distortions are not common wrong answer choices with regard to overview questions.

A time-honored tip for answering overview questions involves performing a  “topic-scope-purpose”  drill. That is, we seek to identify the passage’s topic, scope, and purpose. Topic is defend as the passage’s broad subject matter. It’s an  “article on education.”  The topic is therefore  “education.”  Scope is defend as the specific aspect of the topic that the author is interested in. The scope here is “schooling versus education.” Last, purpose is defined as the reason the author sat down to write the article. His purpose is to say:  “Colleges or universities can’t educate; they exist to prepare students for later learning because youth itself makes real education impossible.”

Knowing the topic, scope, and purpose is enough to answer directly the question at hand. And knowing the author’s purpose will likely set us up for another right answer on at least one of the remaining questions. Identifying the topic alone can help get us halfway to a right answer because the correct answer to an overview question almost always contains the words of the topic. In this case, the word  “education”  (or its derivative “educated”) does not appear in answer  choices B or E . We can feel fairly confident eliminating both of these choices.

Answer: D

Hope it helps

fireflyejd1 · Answer

1. The author’s primary purpose in writing this passage is to

A) Highlight major tenets in educational philosophy in the last 40 years.
B) Raise public awareness for the need of teachers with training in the liberal arts.
C) Contrast the words schooling and education.
D) Suggest that youth stands in the way of one becoming educated.
E) Cite the importance of reading with active discussion.

Correct Answer:  C
 
If you follow closely, you will see that near the end of the passage, the author discusses how immaturity, which is associated with youth, comes in the way of learning and getting educated. Throughout the passage, the author criticizes the current education conventions by taking age and immaturity into account. This makes option c, which talks about  youth (age)  the correct answer.

fireflyejd1 · Answer

3. It can be inferred from the passage that the educated person must

A) Possess more maturity than passion.
B) Not be less than 40 years of age.
C) Be at least a university graduate.
D) Have read classic works of literature.
E) Have traveled widely in order to understand his or her own culture.

Correct answer: B
Notice in the second paragraph, it is mentioned that  The young can be prepared for education in the years to come, but  only mature men and women can become educated, beginning the process in their forties and ffties  and reaching some modicum of genuine insight, sound judgment and practical wisdom after they have turned sixty.

fireflyejd1 · Answer

4. Which of the following pairs of words most closely describe the author’s attitude toward adults as mentioned in the passage?

A) Uninformed participants
B) Unfortunate victims
C) Conscientious citizens
D) Invaluable partners
E) Disdainful culprits

Correct Answer: A
Notice in paragraph 3, it says  And adults are not doing their part  because most are under the illusion  that they had completed their education when they finished their schooling.  The closest match to the compliment the term illusion from the options we have in "uninformed." Unfortunate, conscientious, invaluable and disdainful are outside the scope .

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

4. Which of the following pairs of words most closely describe the author’s attitude toward adults as mentioned in the passage?

Explanation

Tone questions ask about the author’s feeling or attitude toward someone or something in the passage. Basically, the author will be either positive, negative, or neutral. In most cases, especially with respect to Social Sciences passages (versus Science passages), the fact that the author would sit down to write something hints that he or she has some opinion about the topic at hand. Therefore, the neutral answer choice is not usually correct, even if available.

For this question, we have, on the positive and supportive side, the word pairs:  “invaluable partners,” “conscientious citizens,” or “unfortunate victims.”  On the negative side, we have  “uninformed participants”  or  “disdainful culprits.”  The author’s attitude toward adults is somewhat negative but not excessively so.

The feeling is more like frustration. The author believes that adults are not grasping the distinction between schooling and education (lines And adults are not doing their part because most are under the illusion that they had completed their education when they fnished their schooling). Therefore, positive sounding  choices C and D  are out.

Choice B, “unfortunate victims,”  is sympathetic but the author thinks that adults are not victims, just misfocused.

Choice E, “disdainful culprits,”  is too negative.

Answer: A

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

5. How is this passage organized?

Explanation

The author introduces his thesis or summary in the very frst sentence,  “... a controlling insight in my educational philosophy...,”  then he goes on to support it with his personal observations, experiences, and opinions. Thus,  choice A  is not correct. No objective analysis is put forth; if there were, we would expect to see some surveys, statistics, or alternative viewpoints introduced.

Choice B  is wrong because there is a single idea presented but the author agrees with it because it is his own idea.

Choice D  is incorrect as there are not two viewpoints presented, just one.

Choice E  suggests a popular viewpoint but it is highly unlikely that many people have adopted this viewpoint because, according to the author, adults (and, by extension, laypersons) haven’t really caught on. Last, a number of perspectives are not drawn upon. The author chooses to spend the entire article developing his single viewpoint  “no one has ever been—no one could ever be educated in school or college.”

Answer: C

Hope it helps

For more than forty years, a controlling insight in my educational

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For more than forty years, a controlling insight in my educational

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