> our schools are turning out people by the million with severely crippled critical thinking skills A tangential possibility -- most people do have the brain p

> our schools are turning out people by the million with severely crippled critical thinking skills A tangential possibility -- most people do have the brain power to think critically; but the education system has trained them to think that being wrong is the end of the world, so if there's any chance that they're right then they'll take it and ignore evidence to the contrary instead of intelligently admitting defeat and changing their opinion. (See also: politics, where if you do some research and discover that your theoretically good policies are actually shooting your country in the foot, you'd better carry on shooting faster and harder or your career will be crippled by accusations of being a flip-flopper)