We Have To Teach Critical Thinking

Let’s look at some recent headlines about humans and their antics.

Etc.

Most of the protagonists in these stories, though they no doubt clutch bulging portfolios of tightly-held “beliefs,” have never been taught how to think. By how to think, I mean the real basics. Logic. Reasoning. What evidence is and how science builds theories. What an opinion is and how it differs from fact. The different kinds of logical fallacies. The reason why the contrapositive to a true statement is also true, but not necessarily the inverse or the converse. Simple, self-evident things that once we are shown them we can’t help but assent to. Then, too, spotting pseudoscience and quackery. And, into the bargain, a bit about human psychology and its weaknesses–our tendency to believe “weird things” despite a lack of evidence, our yearning for unprovable things to be true, ways to be religious without being crazy.

Thanks in large part to an educational system that doesn’t prioritize critical thinking, most people never learn these things, and they grow up to cross a bridge away from the reality-based world. When they do so, those of us not in exile from fact have no way to call to them across the gap, for we and they have no shared view of reality. All we can do is try to stop them from massing dangerously and overrunning us–and try to educate the next generation.

Go buy a logic workbook. Read it. Give one to your kids and make them do the exercises. Give one to your nieces and nephews. Get elected to the school board, then insist that kids be trained in how to navigate reality with their cortexes instead of their brainstems. Read procon.org to get a feel for the evidence on hot-button issues. And support people like James Randi and Michael Shermer, who have struggled for years to get people to understand the line between fantasy and reality. I don’t think it’s farfetched to claim that the future and well-being of our species depends on it.

5 Comments

Nick K. October 18, 2011 at 2:40 pm -

Actually, we as a society need to do more than just “teach critical thinking.” We have to completely change our value system altogether. Americans need to start instilling in our young a love of learning for the sake of learning. It should be “knowledge for the sake of knowledge” not “knowledge for the sake of a high paying job.” This is probably the fundamental difference between our country and everywhere else in the world. This is why our young fare so poorly compared to other First-World nations (and in some cases, Third-World nations). We value stupidity in this country and disdain intellectualism. For proof of this, just look at the rhetoric of the Tea Party and the front-runners for the Republican Presidential nomination. So long as that continues, Americans will not care about teaching our children to be critical thinkers. They will continue to instill in their children that they should only learn enough to get a high-salaried job and screw the rest.
Jenny Blair October 18, 2011 at 4:22 pm -

Nick, Florida Tea Party governor Rick Scott recently expressed disdain for liberal arts education, proving your point:

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/rick-scott-liberal-arts-majors-drop-dead-anthropology

See also Martha Nussbaum’s Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities.
Nick K. October 18, 2011 at 5:37 pm -

Thanks Jenny! I subscribe to Mother Jones and The Nation. I will be sure to check them out.

Sadly, the Tea Partiers just don’t realize what tools they actually are. The super rich Koch Brothers are using them to promote ignorance in this country. After all, if you keep a populace uneducated and saddled with debt, children, and health problems, they will not have any time to question those in authority.
Liz October 18, 2011 at 9:48 pm -

While there in all reality probably won’t be a rapture on October 21st, there will be a pretty cool meteor shower in Orion. :P I plan to celebrate science and check it out, far away from the nutters doing their end-times thing.
Richard Rush October 19, 2011 at 9:52 am -

Nick said, “We value stupidity in this country and disdain intellectualism.”

Yes. That’s why Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan is so brilliant – it can appeal to millions of people in this country because it’s designed to fit beautifully on a bumper sticker.