The following is an excerpt from a speech given to the School Board about a change to the curriculum:

"Because the future will be dominated by technology, we must make four years of computer programming mandatory for all high school students. If our students take these classes, they’ll all be able to get high-paying programming jobs and lead fulfilling lives because software engineers and data scientists have the best job prospects and salaries. Therefore, we must educate our students so they can secure these kinds of jobs. Even if they pursue other careers, programming will still benefit them, given that all industries are becoming more technological."

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.



The author assumes that a mandatory four year computer programming course will benefit the high school students which will help them gain lucrative careers in future. Therefore assumes that even if students claim for another field of studies further this will inevitably be a boon in any case. While the argument seems valid at first but further scrutinizing highlights the flaws and assumption.

Firstly the school assumes that four years for computer programming course will be sufficient and all the students should be enrolled in it. The author must provide further evidence such as how many people would there be interested to study the program even after passing out from high-school. This would strengthen the argument if there results heaps of students excited for the same. Therefore, student's prior grades and performance should also be taken into considerations when introducing to this vast and difficult subject. Providing the number of languages and to what extent the school is planning to educate their students would have helped to plan the study schedule and had given transparency to the students as well.

Secondly the author mentioned that this course promises lucrative careers after the program completion nevertheless of how students performs. A detailed report or summary of what grades will take you there must have been provided. Additionally the phrase "best job prospects and salaries" is an obscure term. What do the school means by best salaries, is it equivalent to what their parents are now earning to is it sufficient to thrive in long future. Some statistical evidence must have been provided in the light of what grades correlates to what amount of salary.

Lastly the author claims that this course will benefit everyone irrespective of their career choices afore. Though the school would definitely increase the annual fees to introduce this new course for extra faculties and more number of supplies eg computers in the campus, this might create financial burden on some parents and students also. In a case where student is likely to go into farming and join his family business, there wouldn't be a need of programming and result in a waste of time.

The author made several assumptions on which the argument rests but further need of evidence is required to made computer programming a mandatory course for the high school students. The course would possibly help students but it shouldn't be compulsory for the all the children.