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> We're in the golden age of critical thinking That's a hoot! There hasn't been as much tribalism and sloganeering in US politics as there is now since before

> We're in the golden age of critical thinking That's a hoot! There hasn't been as much tribalism and sloganeering in US politics as there is now since before the Civil War. Children graduating high school these days are barely literate and absolutely incapable of identifying a logical syllogism or evaluating an argument. Jon Stewart's joke news show is most of the country's prime source of information and analysis. Maybe there's a fantastic revolution of "critical thinking" happening in the third world somewhere, but certainly not in the US or western Europe.

afhdshufdufdo 13y ago
+10000000. I totally agree with you. But, I don't know what to do about it. We've tried public and private schools, but I think a lot of the problem is our culture. Hard work and studying are not rewarded; group mind-think and standardization have taken the place of a good combination of rote memory learning and essay writing/debating. What if we were to establish schools the same way they existed in the 1800s with the same rigor? Small, mixed classes, all in a single room, hopefully taught by the very well-educated.
- joeclark77 13y ago
  I'd like to find a way to do homeschooling that wouldn't require my wife to be a full-time teacher. One possibility is something like a network of families where each one is responsible for a particular subject or a particular day of the week, and they take turns. Or something like Art Robinson's curriculum (http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com) where the children are basically self-teaching, and you can do other work as long as you're around to keep the schedule/discipline. It's tough, though. I wish I could trust the Catholic schools, at least, to stick to a classical education, but they're shaped more by the culture than by tradition these days.

afhdshufdufdo 13y ago

+10000000. I totally agree with you. But, I don't know what to do about it. We've tried public and private schools, but I think a lot of the problem is our culture. Hard work and studying are not rewarded; group mind-think and standardization have taken the place of a good combination of rote memory learning and essay writing/debating. What if we were to establish schools the same way they existed in the 1800s with the same rigor? Small, mixed classes, all in a single room, hopefully taught by the very well-educated.

joeclark77 13y ago
I'd like to find a way to do homeschooling that wouldn't require my wife to be a full-time teacher. One possibility is something like a network of families where each one is responsible for a particular subject or a particular day of the week, and they take turns. Or something like Art Robinson's curriculum (http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com) where the children are basically self-teaching, and you can do other work as long as you're around to keep the schedule/discipline. It's tough, though. I wish I could trust the Catholic schools, at least, to stick to a classical education, but they're shaped more by the culture than by tradition these days.