Current and previous generations struggle too. Critical thinking and problem solving skills have always been an absolute bear to teach, and few teachers or scho

Current and previous generations struggle too. Critical thinking and problem solving skills have always been an absolute bear to teach, and few teachers or school systems have the stomach to teach it. I’m thinking of science education, for example. It’s not just a matter of teaching kids a bunch of disconnected facts about science like “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” but teaching kids to use the scientific method. To teach the scientific method well, you have to get the kids to design experiments and be comfortable with the prospect of failure. This is, sadly, a very modern approach and requires training the teachers how to do this. Some schools don’t but it’s not something you would have likely gotten much of in the 20th century. Instead, people are still fighting over dumb shit like which facts are taught in class. “Critical thinking skills” are not on the menu most of the time.