So one of my ongoing problems with people is how much they don’t think. They do very stupid things, are very guilible and generally just don’t bother to use their grey matter.
I have a solution.
I also notice that lots of people don’t really know much about the law. They don’t know what to do if they’re arrested, they don’t know how to read contracts, etc.
I have a solution.
Here’s my idea. Basically I think that a requirement to graduate from high school needs to be the completion of a critical thinking course (ideally in 9th grade), and a course in basic law. The critical thinking course would be pretty obvious. The law course would cover your rights under the Constitution, what to do if you’re arrested, how trials work, how to read a contract, how to sign a lease, etc.
Seems like a pretty simple couple of ideas to me. I’d be interested to hear if anyone can formulate any good reasons not ro have these courses.
February 17, 2008 at 4:52 am
Here’s a thought. Let’s say I get 75% right on my critical thinking tests. Does that mean I’m now a critical thinker?
I think you need to require 100% mastery over a range of problems and issues. This is something that may take thousands of hours to get good at but that’s really what it takes.
I can think of maybe a half dozen really good and different ways to teach critical thinking but the all take time and practice. In corporate training, when we teach things like problem solving and decision making we spend a lot of time working on real live stuff.