RJ Dewar

Professor Liu

Classical Rhetoric

Education examined through Classical Rhetoric

Government policies will never be pleasing to everyone as there are always two sides to

consider. P.L. Tomas’s article “Politics and Education Don't Mix” is a perfect example of that.

Thomas is currently an associate professor of education at Furman University as well as a

column editor for the English Journal. Published in The Atlantic in 2012, the article consists of

Thomas sharing his opinion on the role of bureaucracy in education. His audience seems to be

people who are involved with education and have some type of prior knowledge of it, but need to

be persuaded towards his side. That is evident by his first sentence in the rhetorical piece, “A

central flaw of corporate paradigms, as is often noted in popular culture, is the mind-numbing

and dehumanizing effect of bureaucracy”. That is a very strong statement and is expected to be

followed by an explanation of what bureaucracy is. But there wasn’t, and that indicated what his

audience was. This essay will analyze what and how classical rhetoric principles were used in

Thomas’s article to improve or hurt his arguments against bureaucracy in education. Invention,

arrangement, ethos, pathos and logos as well as fallacies were used by Thomas in the article. An

analysis of how well they were used and what could have been done to make them better will

occur in this essay.

Article Summary

The article starts with Thomas giving an overview of Bureaucracy’s role in education.

Bureaucracy is a system of the government where non-elected officials make decisions for

different segments of your country. Thomas focuses on education and bureaucracy’s role in it.
Thomas believes that these state officials that make decisions on education are not qualified to

make them which is why the education system is not where it should be. Thomas attempts to

discredit these people by pointing out that they do not have backgrounds in education, therefore

should not be making huge decisions about it. Public education will always be one of the top

issues for education. The quality of education, the resources available, teacher pay are all

problems that public schools have to deal with while most private schools are immune to them.

A lot of state officials did not go to public school so Thomas believes it isn’t smart to have them

make decisions for public schools. “Governors and presidents are no better suited to run schools

than they are to run construction sites, and it's time our education system reflected that fact.”

(Thomas). Thomas thinks the people who are actually involved with education should be the

ones handling the daily functions of keeping the education system afloat. He says that they are

the ones who know what is best. The current people in charge may be intelligent, but they have

never dealt with the education issues that professionals in the field have had. Tomas wants his

audience to see and understand the problems of bureaucracy in education and how he thinks they

can be solved.

Five Canons of Rhetoric

The two of five canons of rhetoric (invention, arrangement) were used by Thomas as previously

stated. Cicero, who is considered one of the greatest speakers in ancient history, said “The parts

of [rhetoric], as most authorities have stated, are Invention, Arrangement, Expression, Memory,

and Delivery”. All of the canons are important but they are all not necessary for every rhetorical

piece. Invention is the process of putting arguments together to prepare the rhetorical piece. As a

rhetor, the arguments used must be well thought out with evidence to back it up. An important

aspect of the process of figuring out arguments is stasis. Stasis is four questions a rhetor should
ask themselves when putting together arguments. These four questions are: Questions of fact,

questions of definition, questions of quality and questions of policy. “Every subject which

contains in itself any controversy existing either in language or in disputation, contains a

question either about a fact, or about a name, or about a class, or about an action” (Cicero). As a

rhetor, the arguments used must not be well thought out. The question of fact asks what exactly

is going to be talked about and what facts can be used to support and opinion. The question of

definition helps define what an idea is and what the different parts are. What these different parts

are and can do are an important piece to it as well. Question of quality questions whether the

argument is good or bad and right or wrong. Finally, the question of policy asks what actions

should be taken by the audience after hearing the rhetor’s argument. According to Aristotle, one

of the goals of invention is “discovering the best available means of persuasion”. Figuring out

what mode to use is very important for a rhetor. Ethos, logos and pathos are very different and

although they all can be used in a rhetorical piece, one usually dominates. An argument based on

ethos is going to sound very different from one focused on pathos. Arrangement also had a big

role with the article. The arranging of facts, arguments, overview, introductions and conclusions

gives the rhetorical piece structure. Classical rhetoricians divided them in six different parts:

introduction, statement of facts, division, proof, refutation and conclusion. Introduction consists

of a rhetor introducing their subject and purpose of the rhetoric piece. Introduction is meant to

grab the audience’s attention whatever way possible. The statement of facts is used to give the

audience background information of what the topic is. Good rhetor does not assume that an

entire audience will completely understand the topic being discussed. Division is how is rhetor

arranges their arguments. Certain rhetorical pieces call for different arrangements. Division is

almost like a trip a rhetor takes their audience on to understand each argument. Proof is the meat
and potatoes of the rhetorical piece. It is when a rhetor shares their argument in a way that

sounds logical and easy to understand. Refutation is when the rhetor brings to light the flaws in

their argument in an attempt to get ahead of any questions someone may ask to discredit their

argument

Invention

Invention is the process before writing where a rhetor puts their ideas and approaches

together to discover and develop arguments. According to Aristotle, one of the goals of invention

is “discovering the best available means of persuasion”. That process includes ethos, logos, and

pathos. Thomas’s means of persuasion was to get his audience to ask themselves questions. To

not only question the arguments made by him but also question what or who the arguments are

about. By doing this, it gives the Thomas the opportunity to answer those same questions that are

floating in their brain. In just the second paragraph, Thomas says” Current claims about private,

public, or charter schools in the education reform movement, which has its roots in the mid-

nineteenth century, may also be masking a much more important call to confront and even

dismantle the bureaucracy that currently cripples universal public education in the U.S. what is

wrong with bureaucracy and what its role is with education.” I was easy to see that his goal was

to set a tone for the rest of the article.

Arrangement

By starting the article the way he did, he caused his audience to think about what

bureaucracy does well and doesn’t do well. As the characteristics of bureaucracy are thought

about by the audience, Thomas is setting them up. The thinking about the characteristics

transforms into questions of is it the best fit for education. And as that thought creeps up,

Thomas is there for the answers. This is why his arrangement was the best out of all the canons.
Aristotle says that one of the three key points to speech writing is “the proper arrangement of the

various parts”. Thomas didn’t come out guns blazing, denigrating bureaucracy in education right

away. He gave an overview of how bureaucratic officials do business and then showed why that

was bad for the education system. Inequities and inequalities are a big part of the education

problems in America as most people know. But that isn’t just a education problem, that is an

America problem. Thomas thinks that if the American government can’t find ways to fix

inequities, then how could the people that they appoint to handle the education system do it.

What Thomas did not do well with arrangement was add the problem of inequities sooner and

more often. The sentence “Bureaucracy is failing education reform because it doesn't

acknowledge or address two central realities: the U.S. remains corrosively inequitable, especially

in terms of race, class, and gender; and education tends to perpetuate those inequities through

commitments to tracking, testing, and ranking.”, was not used until the second to last paragraph.

This would have benefited him by showing the audience real problems with bureaucracy. The

inequalities it bureaucracy fails to consider buffer his argument and helps him achieve his goal,

which is to discredit bureaucracy, easier and quicker. There was a lot of discrediting bureaucracy

but not enough examples put in the correct spots to really grab the reader's attention. He did a lot

of claims, but examples causes an audience to listen more and take claims more seriously.

Three Modes of Persuasion

The modes of persuasion, ethos, logos, and pathos will always have a part of any

rhetorical piece. Ethos focuses on the credibility of the argument presented and the person

behind it. You can state 100% facts but if you are not credible, chances are your arguments will

not be considered valid. Some people try to rely on their name as their ethos while most attempt
to establish it in their rhetoric. Aristotle would say that no matter who the person is are, ethos

must always be established in every rhetorical piece. The rhetor may have a great reputation but

each topic they touch on is different so ethos must be established so an audience will take you

seriously. I think Aristotle would agree that Thomas relied too much of his past which caused his

ethos to not be as good as it could have been. The article was published in The Atlantic, a well-

respected magazine, and had links to his website that gave information about his past work. That

isn’t necessarily a bad approach to establish ethos but how many people are going to want to

click a link and go through someone’s history to see if their credible?

Logos focuses on the argument itself. What is being said, the reasoning behind it and how

it is said. But the arguments are not required to be true. According to Aristotle “persuasion is

effected through the speech itself when we have proved a truth or an apparent truth”. The

“apparent truth” part of that is very important. A rhetor doesn’t need to be truthful, they just need

to sound truthful. That’s where syllogisms and enthymemes come into play. A syllogism is an

argument that has two premises that form a conclusion. An enthymeme is an argument that has a

conclusion but no premises. “Every one who effects persuasion through proof does in fact

use either enthymemes or examples: there is no other way.” (Aristotle). Aristotle describes

logos as “to reason logically” which essentially means to make sense. No matter who is

inventing a rhetorical piece, if the arguments aren’t clear and makes sense, it is a fail. Thomas’s

logos throughout the article had some good parts but also bad. His arguments made sense when

they were read and caused readers to think. The arguments were logical at times but fallacious at

others. Arguments that sound good on the surface but have fallacies behind them can be hard to

notice. A good rhetor will take advantage of an audience by stating something that is true but

does not have substance. But Thomas did not have many enthymemes if any. In fact, he had a lot
of syllogisms that worked well. His main premise was the fact that bureaucracy causes people

who are not experts in education to run the system which is a flaw. “…central flaw in the need

for structure and hierarchy is that politics prefers leadership characteristics above expertise. No

politician can possibly have the expertise and experience needed in all the many areas a leader

must address” (Thomas). Where Thomas had a flaw is when he started to use logical fallacies. A

logical fallacy is an error in a person’s logic. Thomas said “Governors and presidents are no

better suited to run schools than they are to run construction sites, and it's time our education

system reflected that fact.” This argument sounds good because he is stating an obvious that the

some state officials are not little to zero background in education. But just because there is no

background does not mean that they don’t know what they are doing. This argument exemplifies

the cause and effect fallacy. This fallacy is when a person assumes that two things happening at

once are directly correlated. An argument I did like was when he said that state officials make

decisions that are based on what is best for everyone. If education professionals were making the

decisions, the decisions would more likely than not be based on what is best for the educators

and students. For an example, when comparing public education to private, public education

should be making decisions separate from private in his eyes. Most state officials don’t truly

understand what public education is. They can hear the needs and wants, but Thomas believes

since they never went through it, they can’t possibly make the correct decisions around it. The

fallacy of cause and effect is very flawed, but is used all the time.

Lastly, pathos touches on the emotions of the argument. The rhetorician tries to excite a

type of emotion from their audience to get them on their side. Aristotle said “Our judgments

when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.” (Page 8).

The audience may not agree or even understand their argument but because the rhetor got the
emotions that he or she needed, it caused members of the audience to want to agree. Emotions

like guilt, pity, sadness, hate, jealousy are some that can be used by a rhetor. If there were pathos

in this article, it wasn’t much. It seemed Thomas had very little interest in focusing on pathos to

grab the audience's attention. There’s nothing wrong with that but this article needed more

pathos. Examples of bureaucracy failing the education system, more specifically the public

education system could have went a long way in not only garnering emotions but also helping his

ethos as well. Kids can always cause emotions and Thomas did not take advantage of that. Pity,

sadness, guilt are some of the emotions children can excite upon a person. Kids are looked at as

innocent and helpless beings. They need guidance and nourishment in order to succeed. Thomas

could have used that fact to show why bureaucracy needs to be stopped. How the decisions being

made aren’t helping the innocent children. Pathos could have been used to not only feel pity for

students and educators, but cause anger towards bureaucracy. Anger that clouds an audience

judgment.

Flaws in all, Thomas’s article was a good read and had some good rhetorical principles.

The arrangement of his article was easily the best part and it seemed like it was what Thomas

focused on the most. Reading the article gave insight on how helpful the arrangement of

arguments can be when writing. Positioning arguments correctly can make arguments look better

even when they aren’t that good. Not only was his arrangement good, but his invention was as

well. They both went hand in hand as his invention caused questions to be asked and answered

but he could have used the modes of persuasion a little bit more. Without the correct

arrangement, his arguments would have generated the questions and answers but the timing

would have been off and it wouldn’t have been as effective as it was. It’s crazy how classical
rhetoric concepts are still being used today. Things that old usually go away but it is still there

and needed to make a good rhetorical piece.

Thomas, PL. Politics and Education Don't Mix
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/politics-and-education-dont-mix/256303/.

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