Critical Reasoning

Educational Theorist: Recent editorials have called for limits on the amount of homework assigned to children. They point out that free-time activities play an important role in childhood development and that large amounts of homework reduce children’s free time, hindering their development. But the average homework time for a ten year old, for example, is little more than 30 minutes per night. Clearly, therefore, there is no need to impose the limits these editorials are calling for.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the educational theorist’s
argument relies?

A. The free-time activities that ten year olds engage in most are all
approximately equally effective at fostering development
B. Regularly doing homework assignments improves children’s academic
performance.
C. Individual teachers are not the best judges of how much homework to
assign the children they teach
D. In most schools, if not all, the homework assignments given are of a
length that does not diverge widely from the average.
E. Free-time activities rarely teach children skills or information that they
can use in their academic work.

OA D

The educational theorist says:

"But the average homework time for a ten year old, for example, is little more than 30 minutes per night. Clearly, therefore, there is no need to impose the limits these editorials are calling for."

This conclusion can only be based on the fact that (D) in most schools, if not all, the homework assignments given are of a length that does not diverge widely from the average.

If the length would diverge considerably then his argument would not hold. In that case the recent editorials would be right!

Agree with Gmat Man
Negating D - says- homework given by many schools is lengthy and take time more than avg( after negating), so limit should be imposed and
this weakns the conclusion - there is no need to impose the limits


Hence D

I think D is the right answer here.