NationStates

Since we have yet another education topic that starts off with 'Schools don't teach people how to think!' bit, I'd like to ask the assembled wisdom of NSG just what the heck that means? It comes up every single education thread. I've been teaching for 14 years and I've yet to see someone really lay out how a teacher is supposed to teach kids how to think.

So, let me ask you, how DO you teach kids how to think? What is your proposal? Please provide concrete examples and not vague I'm a politician trying to get elected campaign slogans. What would a class look like? What would you cover? How do you measure if a kid is 'thinking'? And how do you square it with teaching various skills, including bedrock skills?

The issue I have with this battle cry is that

1. We don't need to teach kids how to think, they already KNOW how to think. They're very good at it. The problem is that we need to teach analytical skills, criticisms, critiques, taking things apart and putting them back together again. But, schools are also charged with doing so in a way that is measurable, and teaches the skills that the local community defines as being worthwhile. Liberal arts IS teaching people how to think. Science is teaching people how to think. That's what they're for, but for that to happen students do need a basic knowledge on what to go off of in order to do the above, and some of that is simply drill and kill. And, well, the same people who scream about teaching kids how to think are usually also screaming that schools aren't teaching life skills. Skills really are drill and kill. Balancing a checkbook doesn't require the scientific method. Hopefully. The other issue I have with this battle cry is that normally the people who are saying it also mean 'Teach them to think like ME.'

2. The second bit is getting them to use it. I can teach the skills of how to deconstruct a text, why it has meaning, etc. Doesn't mean that students will use it.

But perhaps I am wrong. So what does it mean and how do we do it?

Doesn't Literature Include "Critical Thinking"??????????????

Azlaake wrote:Doesn't Literature Include "Critical Thinking"??????????????

That's the whole point of it, yes. But apparently it's not enough.

No.

Free thinkers are bad.

New haven america wrote:No.

Free thinkers are bad.

I second this.

Azlaake wrote:Doesn't Literature Include "Critical Thinking"??????????????

Yes, that would seem to be what this topic is about.

Out college encouraged and rewarded critical thinking. We had tutorials and examples. I reposted work that demonstrated critical thinking. We stressed that first comes information, then knowledge, and finally wisdom. It is at that final stage that one sees critical thinking.

Social media is a negative force here; are students are conditioned to react instantly to key words and memes and click "I like that! I hate that!" as if this somehow demonstrated thought on their part.

Why don't we teach kids how to pay bills, apply for jobs and student loans and file for their tax returns?

Very little of what we teach kids (at least in America) actually helps them deal with their eventual adulthood.

Yusseria wrote:Why don't we teach kids how to pay bills, apply for jobs and student loans and file for their tax returns?

Very little of what we teach kids (at least in America) actually helps them deal with their eventual adulthood.

Is that actually the job of a school?

NERVUN wrote:

Yusseria wrote:Why don't we teach kids how to pay bills, apply for jobs and student loans and file for their tax returns?

Very little of what we teach kids (at least in America) actually helps them deal with their eventual adulthood.

Is that actually the job of a school?

A lot of kids don't have parents or figures in their lie to teach them those things, so yes, school should also teach them that.

NERVUN wrote:

Yusseria wrote:Why don't we teach kids how to pay bills, apply for jobs and student loans and file for their tax returns?

Very little of what we teach kids (at least in America) actually helps them deal with their eventual adulthood.

Is that actually the job of a school?

It should be. Many kids don't have parents or at least proper parental figures.

Oftentimes even those who have parents still don't learn that stuff.

I play solitaire and chess on my phone a lot to enhance my quick-thinking skills.

Bear Stearns wrote:I play solitaire and chess on my phone a lot to enhance my quick-thinking skills.

What's your chess.com account so that I can confirm this claim

The Black Party wrote:

Bear Stearns wrote:I play solitaire and chess on my phone a lot to enhance my quick-thinking skills.

What's your chess.com account so that I can confirm this claim

I just use the iPhone app, unfortunately.

Bear Stearns wrote:

The Black Party wrote:What's your chess.com account so that I can confirm this claim

I just use the iPhone app, unfortunately.

preposterous! Everyone knows making an account boosts your quick-thinking skills by at least 15%.

Yusseria wrote:Why don't we teach kids how to pay bills, apply for jobs and student loans and file for their tax returns?

Very little of what we teach kids (at least in America) actually helps them deal with their eventual adulthood.

I second that, and for us anyway, we have something a little similar to that - Principle of Accounts.

It's a Secondary School (Middle School equivalent) subject that we took in Secondary 3 and 4 in Singapore (around, err... Grade 9-10?).

Accounting is an information system based on generally accepted accounting principles. It involves the recording and processing of business transactions, and communicating the information to stakeholders. The accounting information is used to evaluate business performance and facilitate decision-making. What sets the accountancy profession apart is the responsibility to act in the public’s interest.

Principles of Accounts (syllabus code 7175) is designed to provide students with a meaningful basic introduction to financial accounting and to develop an appreciation of the discipline of accounting. It is grounded in preparing, communicating and using financial information, and appreciating the need for ethical conduct. The subject places emphasis on the understanding and application of accounting knowledge to develop lifelong skills and values that will be of value in the increasingly complex world of business.

This subject forms part of a broad-based education to equip students with strong fundamentals for future learning. It is offered as an elective subject at Secondary Three and examinable at the GCE Ordinary Level.

Source: SEAB (Singapore Examinations and Assessments Board)

So in a sense... we do have POA as a subject, but of course, it's optional, and you can always take Additional Mathematics (which is more on calculus, logarithms, and trigonometry). I guess you can sort of say that we covered the accounting/finance part well?

The Black Party wrote:

Bear Stearns wrote:
I just use the iPhone app, unfortunately.

preposterous! Everyone knows making an account boosts your quick-thinking skills by at least 15%.

Will an account get rid of ads?

Yusseria wrote:Why don't we teach kids how to pay bills, apply for jobs and student loans and file for their tax returns?

Very little of what we teach kids (at least in America) actually helps them deal with their eventual adulthood.

plenty of schools in the world do that. It's not a lot of time.
We can teach both, Jim.

Kubra wrote:

Yusseria wrote:Why don't we teach kids how to pay bills, apply for jobs and student loans and file for their tax returns?

Very little of what we teach kids (at least in America) actually helps them deal with their eventual adulthood.

plenty of schools in the world do that. It's not a lot of time.
We can teach both, Jim.

Nope, impossible, we can only pick one or the other.

NERVUN wrote:But perhaps I am wrong. So what does it mean and how do we do it?

I guess theres different meanings thereof. But my take would be, for example, that it would teach people how to think more efficiently and not get lost in thoughts but instead uses the resources of the mind towards an objective.

But thats probably not what most people would mean with it.

In my view, it should mean teaching people the skills to make tons of money or profit. Knowledge without direct applications is cheap. The economy can't run off of people who know "Art History" and other nonsense like that. We should be teaching high schoolers whatever makes good money so that upon graduating, they can get right to work like how it was in the 1950s. Not this college/university nonsense that is making lots of families suffer more financially.

If someone wants to begin training to be a doctor at 14, I don't think I'd oppose this. Because when they're done, they'll be 22 or so.

We need to fast track people into what they show aptitude for based upon how they test. If they don't like where they end up, they can try to switch to something else, but they'd need to pay out of pocket for their training in that case, as opposed to if they stick with what they're given. The underachievers will be fast tracked into something like fast food or retail whilst the brilliant kids will be pushed into becoming Accountants, Lawyers, Doctors, and so on.

New haven america wrote:

Kubra wrote: plenty of schools in the world do that. It's not a lot of time.
We can teach both, Jim.

Nope, impossible, we can only pick one or the other.

and we cannot teach them how to pay bills and also apply for jobs
one will be taught, the other shall become forbidden knowledge

i believe the critical word critically missing from the thread title, is "critical", as in "critical thinking",
which simply means "ask the next question" (to yourself in doing your own research of course, not the perpetual "by why mommy".)

the ego is a narcissist and doesn't like to be doubted, but the half knowledge, that comes from failing the responsibility, to question, everything,
is dangerous to the self, a risk, too often needless, and to everyone else.

The Black Party wrote:

New haven america wrote:No.

Free thinkers are bad.

I second this.

Big brother is watching

Kubra wrote:

Yusseria wrote:Why don't we teach kids how to pay bills, apply for jobs and student loans and file for their tax returns?

Very little of what we teach kids (at least in America) actually helps them deal with their eventual adulthood.

plenty of schools in the world do that. It's not a lot of time.
We can teach both, Jim.

Fine by me, fam.

People are just salty that school was never fun for them, that's my opinion. Our education system is largely okay the way it is. People who complain about school not teaching them "critical thinking" usually fall into two subcategories:
1. The valley of Dunning-Kruger, where they don't realize that they could never have learned critical thinking there anyways, and just say it to pass off the fact that they really just aren't good at school (which is fine, but don't criticize a vital part of society just because it wasn't your best area).
2. People who are far too arrogant for their own good and fail to realize the modern education system is doing the best it can to serve a diverse student body, including people who are less advantaged than them.

It's a nothing term that means whatever these people want it to mean when it comes to criticizing something that they know nothing about.

That being said, at least in America, both groups could be better serviced if school differentiated its students more into different areas of interest earlier on than university (yes, some schools do this, but few in my area).