Why is it 3/4 of the America Public can't think critically? w/poll

[JBvM]

critically. seriously. Why?

 

[TheOldSchool]

We should probably just do away with schools and education

 

[JBvM]

We should probably just do away with schools and education

Actually one man named Paul Goodman once posited that if "Johnny can't read and write" what would be wrong with closing schools for one year and reinventing how we educate. Of course we would still just House the kids, like we have done with the Tender Age immigrants in cages - excuse me, in walls built out of fences

 

[Lysistrata]

My answer to your poll would be "none of the above," as none of the choices involve critical-thinking skills.

There is no sense in closing the schools for one year, but the curriculum should be revamped and the use of the Socratic method should be made as universal as possible. When I was in junior and senior high school, we were given all sorts of writing assignments that came with the instruction to "compare and contrast" two or more views on a particular issue. One that I remember particularly was being asked to compare two poems from the WWI era, in which the authors expressed opposite views of the value of war. We were told that there was no "right" or "wrong" answer for purpose of the assignment. The idea was to get the child to think and learn to express his or her reasons for arriving at a certain conclusion, rather than merely to parrot something we found in a book.

One of the problems with the educational system in this country is the number of parents and educators who are opposed to this system and prefer that the students be taught to recite what they are told by rote, which defeats the development of critical-thinking skills and imagination.

 

[JBvM]

My answer to your poll would be "none of the above," as none of the choices involve critical-thinking skills.

exactly! Why would i want to stoop so low as to challenge people with a lack of critical thinking skills? I do have sympathy for y'all

 

[JBvM]

There is no sense in closing the schools for one year,

It was a hypothetical, but in all seriousness, why not? What would be the harm, if "Johnny cannot read and write?" (this was in the 1960s by the way, considered a golden time by some LOL)

 

[JBvM]

One of the problems with the educational system in this country is the number of parents and educators who are opposed to this system and prefer that the students be taught to recite what they are told by rote, which defeats the development of critical-thinking skills and imagination.

Agree! I was sent to a 'progressive' boarding school that stressed everything but rote learning. Didn't stay long as I took their philosophy so seriously i became too mart for my own good.

 

[blastoff]

Went to a Jesuit high school where they not only taught you their rigorous curriculum but also how to learn it, to study, and the ability to write well along with lots of other stuff. And no matter what your grade point average was if they felt you weren’t working up to your full ability and showed no interest in improving you got tossed to make room for guys on the waiting list to get in. One bootee so removed in my class was the son of the guy whose name was on the wall of our natatorium building because he donated every dime to build it!

The big bennie from going there was college was a walk in the park by comparison, leaving plenty of extra time for independent study of various bars, women’s dorms, sororities and whatnot.

 

[Lysistrata]

Went to a Jesuit high school where they not only taught you their rigorous curriculum but also how to learn it, to study, and the ability to write well along with lots of other stuff. And no matter what your grade point average was if they felt you weren’t working up to your full ability and showed no interest in improving you got tossed to make room for guys on the waiting list to get in. One bootee so removed in my class was the son of the guy whose name was on the wall of our natatorium building because he donated every dime to build it!

The big bennie from going there was college was a walk in the park by comparison, leaving plenty of extra time for independent study of various bars, women’s dorms, sororities and whatnot.

Good for your school that it didn't mollycoddle the legacy kids.

I went to a public high school in northern NJ, always under my mother's threat to send me to The Academy of the Holy Angels (I know that my father, may he RIP, would never, ever have allowed this)! This was in the '60s. I certainly never wanted to be a Holy Angel and wear a uniform. Needless to say I buckled down somewhat after my PSAT scores hit the guidance office and they called me and my parents in because my math score was 630 and I was pulling C-Ds. I was writing poetry in the back of class and gazing at the young fox who was my teacher. Point-slope formula. Really. But I nonetheless graduated with honors and the university I attended exempted me from the required freshman English composition course.

But back to the ranch. It is really distressing to come across so many people on the internet who cannot even come to terms with performing a comparison and can't answer even the most basic questions about their assertions. They probably graduated from high school, but they don't appear to have received much in the way of an education.There was one guy in the last week or so, on USMB, who adamantly insisted that it was "unconstitutional" for A to do some given thing to B. When I consulted the United States Constitution, everywhere available on the internet, and read it, the language read the exact opposite, that B was not allowed to do this to A. Does anyone even get an education in reading comprehension anymore?