regent
Gold Member
- Jan 30, 2012
- 10,459
- 1,152
- 245
Teachers could do that with any subject, history, English, PE, health, whatever. Is there any reason Texas cannot trust its teachers?Not another subject, rather that something like 'Critical Thinking' lends itself particularly well to becoming just a platform for a teacher to present his or her personal views under the guise of the subject itself. I've seen it happen. It takes conscientious, ethical, disciplined teachers who are honest and self-aware to avoid allowing a subject like that to slide into an excuse for pontificating before a captive audience. That, I suppose, is what some people are wary of.
That's exactly the problem, and not just in Texas. When parents have kids coming home from English or History class telling them the things they have been instructed to believe in those subjects, they are even less likely to trust that a subject like 'Critical Thinking' won't just become a vehicle for more of the same. Right or wrong, they are not without reason.
It's the word "think" that frightened Texans, wasn't it?
That's the same sort of problem the ancient Greeks had with logic. Kids coming home and scaring their parents with major premises and so forth. The Greeks got so scared of Socrates and his stupid questioning they made him drink the hemlock. And if questioning is bad, think of the evil that the scientific method has brought to mankind.
Memorization is the way to go, memorization has never hurt anyone, it is meaningless, harmless and soon forgotten, but what we don't want are students that think. Well anyway Texas doesn't,