I do not
particularly think that Kohn’s reasoning is flawed due to fallacies, but I do
think he committed the Ad Hominem fallacy. The whole article he seems to have a
negative outlook on the people who disagree with him. “What are the
critics assuming about the nature of students' motivation to learn, about the
purpose of evaluation and of education itself?” He is attacking the “critics”
by saying that they assume badly toward the motivation of students today, and
how students view education. He also had a negative attitude toward some of the
people that had to do with the studies people ran, and figured they assumed and
did not look at the whole picture. Another example of this is when he started a
sentence with: “Those who grumble about undeserved grades…” He could have
worded his article differently to avoid this fallacy. Imagine if he took out
the word “grumble” and put “talk about”. The attitude towards his opponent
could have been better, and his credibility would have as well.
“…Professors pride themselves not on the
intellectual depth and value of their classes but merely on how much reading
they assign, how hard their tests are, how rarely they award good grades, and
so on.” He is assuming that every professor is like this. If that is not
attacking professors I don’t know what is. After reading this, his credibility
in my mind went down. Some professors may be like this, but there are so many
professors that I have come across, that are the complete opposite. Anything a
professor tells me, whether it is a lesson or a piece of advice, I take
seriously, and I trust it. I would never think that any of them, so far, apply
to this quote whatsoever. I do think that Kohn sees both sides, and he has
solid arguments and points, but his outlook on his opponent commits the Ad
Hominem fallacy.
