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coberst
Skeptic Friend
182 Posts |
 Posted - 06/20/2004 : 13:40:48
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All creatures are born with instinct, which is a programmed response to danger that enhances that creature's ability to survive. Humans are born with the faculty of reason that aids and abets instinct and thus has enhanced the human ability to survive.
In the early years the predator humans had to outwit were other creatures, those without reason.
Today the creatures that humans must face are other humans. Thus reason faces reason in a competition for survival.
I go to a Poker Parlor for the first time and sit down at the table to play a bit of poker. I leave the game fleeced, two hours later. After a couple of experiences similar to this I recognize I must better learn the rules of this poker game.
I diligently study the rules of the game and return to the game to find that while I am not fleeced as quickly as before, I am fleeced more slowly but continuously.
I was puzzled until I conclude that perhaps the fleecing results because of the nature of the game and of those rigging the game. I discover that I am being fleeced consistently because the people running the game have, because they too have the ability to reason, organized the game so as to always favor themselves.
When I learned this I decide that I too shall become a rigger of games and thus fleece others who are ignorant of the facts. Later I decide that I do not wish to be either a rigger or a riggee.
The rigger of the game of living is the predator and we are its prey. We must adapt. We must now be able to match our reasoning ability against those with reasoning ability that wish to take advantage of us. The rigger of the game understands that he who is more skilled at reasoning can fleece those less skilled at reasoning.
Reasoning is a human ability that can be studied and improved. One can become better at reasoning just as one can become better at dealing with quantity. When I learned arithmetic I became better at dealing with quantity. When I study critical thinking I become better at reasoning. When I study the rules of the poker game I become a better poker player. When I study the science of reasoning—critical thinking—I become a better thinker; I become better at understanding the complexity of the human intellect.
Our educational system is attempting to teach our youngsters the science of reasoning—critical thinking. We adults were not taught critical thinking and thus do not recognize its importance. If we taught ourselves critical thinking we would recognize it's importance and its importance to our children. Those who rig the game of life understand the importance of learning the science of reason—critical thinking—and use this knowledge to fleece us and will continue to do so to our children.
Learn something about critical thinking and you will better understand this message. The books are there at your local community college library or at your local bookstore. You don't know what you don't know. What you don't know can hurt you.
Read a book on critical thinking. You might open up a new worldview. The uncritical viewer cannot see beyond the surface appearance.
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2004 : 23:21:58 [Permalink]
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quote:
Our educational system is attempting to teach our youngsters the science of reasoning—critical thinking.
If only that were a true statement....... |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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coberst
Skeptic Friend
182 Posts |
Posted - 06/21/2004 : 07:18:11 [Permalink]
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Dude
When I do a google of critical thinking I find a massive number of sites that lead me to the conclusion that there is a massive effort to bring critical thinking to K-12 and to colleges. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 06/21/2004 : 09:38:24 [Permalink]
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coberst wrote:quote:
When I do a google of critical thinking I find a massive number of sites that lead me to the conclusion that there is a massive effort to bring critical thinking to K-12 and to colleges.
There may be an effort to bring such to the curriculum, but it hasn't yet succeeded. In my opinion, critical thinking classes should be required for graduation from high school, but the only thing that's come close that I've heard of was that my wife took an Intro to Logic elective semester in her senior year.
Of course, that was back 16 years ago, but one can still hear the skeptic's lament that grade school is focused on rote memory and passing multiple-choice tests. Heck, were I to start a school, the only course available would be "How to Learn," and the kids would be graded on how well they taught themselves their self-selected subjects. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 06/21/2004 : 10:02:00 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
coberst wrote:quote:
When I do a google of critical thinking I find a massive number of sites that lead me to the conclusion that there is a massive effort to bring critical thinking to K-12 and to colleges.
There may be an effort to bring such to the curriculum, but it hasn't yet succeeded. In my opinion, critical thinking classes should be required for graduation from high school, but the only thing that's come close that I've heard of was that my wife took an Intro to Logic elective semester in her senior year.
Of course, that was back 16 years ago, but one can still hear the skeptic's lament that grade school is focused on rote memory and passing multiple-choice tests. Heck, were I to start a school, the only course available would be "How to Learn," and the kids would be graded on how well they taught themselves their self-selected subjects.
I too took an introductory logic course in high school. It was an elective course, not a required course.
I currently have a child entering high school next year, unfortunately, there seems to be few choices in courses for her that teach critical thinking. Science classes that should teach critical thinking and scientific methodology don't.
I have gotten her to finally agree to reading Demon Haunted World by Sagan this summer. Which will hopefully impart to her the necessity of critical thinking and a few of the basics. But let's face it, memorize and dump seems much simpler, and it plays the high school game of get good grades, you don't really need to know this stuff though. |
...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and vile!"
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines.
LtGen Thomas Holcomb, USMC
Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1943
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 06/21/2004 : 11:29:48 [Permalink]
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quote:
In my opinion, critical thinking classes should be required for graduation from high school,
I couldn't agree more. It should be a mandatory subject requireing atleast 1 class a year for the entire 4 years of HS.
In FL there is no effort to include critical thinking skills in public education until you get to be a college freshman. And even then... it's a subtopic in a mandatory "Ethics" class. They do go over the basic fallacies and the structure of deductive syllogisms. The thrust of the class is to use a basic critical thinking approach to evaluate ethics questions.
Lets face it, critical thinking is hard. Public schools want to impart a minimum set of info to children and move them along to the next grade. The easiest way is to require simple memorization to pass a multiple guess test.
Even in FL's college and university system the thrust of freshman level classes is not to teach, but to maintain enrollment. They want kids to get some easy classes so they will come back for more.
It's so bad that FL had to enact a LAW requiring some freshman/sophmore level college classes have a mandatory writing requirement.... because so few of the HS grads were capable of writing a basic essay. There is even a test (CLAST) that must be passed now in order to obtain an AA degree. It tests basic reading, writing, and math skills.
We could do so much better if we taught our children how to think critically and (as Dave W said) how to learn at a younger age. |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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