SanHeChuan
03-10-2010, 09:00 AM
A truely good editorial http://article.nationalreview.com/427337/artificial-stupidity/thomas-sowell?page=1
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The experiences of life can help people outgrow whatever they were indoctrinated with. What may persist, however, is the lazy habit of hearing one side of an issue and being galvanized into action without hearing the other side — and, more fundamentally, not having developed any mental skills that would enable you to systematically test one set of beliefs against another.
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Even if all the conclusions with which they indoctrinate their students were 100 percent correct, that would still not be equipping students with the mental skills to weigh opposing views for themselves, in order to be prepared for new and unforeseeable issues that will arise over their lifetimes, after they leave the schools and colleges.
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All though not specially mentioned the article is about critical thinking skills. The way students are taught not to question the authority and knowledge of their source of information, in this case teachers, carries over in to adulthood. As adults people don’t even think to question their chosen source, making propaganda and false statements all the more effective. It is why ideas like death panels, birthers, truthers, and the Al Qaeda 7 etc can take root.
Personally I like conspiracy theories because they are a test of good critical thinking skills. If you don’t dismiss them out of hand, but actually try to deconstruct them.
Assignments in school should not focus on memorizing information from a single source. The answers to question being given to students by books or teachers, but should focus on helping the student to find the answers and filtering out bad information.
Teachers are hardly infallible, and textbooks are riddled (sometimes intentionally) with errors.
http://amasci.com/miscon/miscon.html
...
The experiences of life can help people outgrow whatever they were indoctrinated with. What may persist, however, is the lazy habit of hearing one side of an issue and being galvanized into action without hearing the other side — and, more fundamentally, not having developed any mental skills that would enable you to systematically test one set of beliefs against another.
...
Even if all the conclusions with which they indoctrinate their students were 100 percent correct, that would still not be equipping students with the mental skills to weigh opposing views for themselves, in order to be prepared for new and unforeseeable issues that will arise over their lifetimes, after they leave the schools and colleges.
...
All though not specially mentioned the article is about critical thinking skills. The way students are taught not to question the authority and knowledge of their source of information, in this case teachers, carries over in to adulthood. As adults people don’t even think to question their chosen source, making propaganda and false statements all the more effective. It is why ideas like death panels, birthers, truthers, and the Al Qaeda 7 etc can take root.
Personally I like conspiracy theories because they are a test of good critical thinking skills. If you don’t dismiss them out of hand, but actually try to deconstruct them.
Assignments in school should not focus on memorizing information from a single source. The answers to question being given to students by books or teachers, but should focus on helping the student to find the answers and filtering out bad information.
Teachers are hardly infallible, and textbooks are riddled (sometimes intentionally) with errors.
http://amasci.com/miscon/miscon.html