Resolved: School does not prepare students enough for the future

Newspaper headline: School doesn’t prepare students enough for the future Underneath is a photo of two hopeless-looking teenagers. The article explains that Brandon and Kyle, despite almost four years at Garfield High School, Ohio, can barely read, are lazy and speak in rude monosyllables. The only thing unbelievable about this story is that a newspaper would bother to run with something so commonplace. So you see, Mr Debater1993, if we choose to interpret the resolution in a limited way: one school, two students, immediate future, it’s very easy for me to prove. If the resolution means (and indeed it can be interpreted this way) “Garfield High School does not prepare students Brandon and Kyle for any future involving employment or relationships with other people” then all I need to do is produce Brandon and Kyle and there we are. Brandon and Kyle are fictitious, of course, but nobody can doubt that there are some students somewhere (or even lots of students all over) who have been insufficiently prepared by school for the sort of future they would like. How generous of me then to argue that this is not the most natural interpretation of your resolution. I think that most people would take it to mean school in general and students in general. This meaning allows exceptions either way. For instance, in the apple example, your friend could console you by saying in a general sense, “women don’t give enough apples,” even though I had just given him enough apples. If the resolution had been “School doesn’t prepare students for the future,” then your argument would hold. As an absolute statement, it would require only one contrary example to show it false. However, adding “enough” changes it to a statement of degree. Whether or not school actually prepares students for the future is a matter of opinion. If you could produce one occasion when one student had been prepared for one particular future event, and meanwhile all the other students in the US were failing standard tests and so on, it would be very hard to get people to disagree with the resolution. On the other hand, it is possible to over-prepare students for the future too. Imagine a high school where students are kept on into adulthood to do extra subjects to prepare them for any eventuality. “School has prepared them enough!” we would shout. “They need to learn on the job now!” I chose parenthood in the previous round because more students will grow up to be parents than will go to college or into any single occupation. School doesn’t even try to prepare students for parenthood, in my experience. Of course, it fails in other areas too. High school graduates are not prepared enough for college or for work: “Surveys consistently show that many high school graduates do not meet employers’ standards in a variety of academic areas, as well as in employability skills such as attendance, teamwork and collaboration, and work habits.” http://betterhighschools.org... "Inadequate and inequitable preparation for college affects remediation and persistence rates – major problems in postsecondary institutions throughout the country.” http://www.stanford.edu... “students walk onto their college campuses needing significant remedial work in the core disciplines of reading, writing, math, and science” http://www.usnews.com... Mr Debater1993, I like this debate too. It’s been different from the other debates I’ve had on this site. Thank you for instigating. School doesn’t prepare students enough for the future.