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Republicans oppose Critical Thinking
1–25 out of 26 messages
| Author | Message |
| etaoin shrdlu |
Posted - 6/29/2012 5:05:17 PM | show profile | flag this post
The Republican Party of Texas has put together its latest platform -- and it opposes letting students learn critical thinking skills. Says it just makes them harder to control by parents, teachers and other authority figures -- like GOP leaders and the government. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/texas_gops_2012_platform_accidentally_opposes_teaching_of_critical_thinking_skills.php In all fairness, one of the Texas GOP honchos says the critical thinking language made it into the platform "by mistake." Guess their thinking abilities were in critical condition. |
| cruiser |
Posted - 6/29/2012 5:28:34 PM | show profile | flag this post
When "critical thinking skills" is a euphemism for left wing political indoctrination, I think they have a point. |
| Grateful Deadline |
Posted - 6/29/2012 5:42:29 PM | show profile | flag this post
Hahahahahahahaha! Forget my other nominee for Mature Post of the Day -- the one immediately above mine trumps it. Critical thinking = "indoctrination"? Hahahahahahahahaha! *Somebody* was absent the day the class read "Nineteen Eighty-Four"! I know, I know -- teaching kids to vet the information sources, consider multiple perspectives and then make their own decisions is horribly, terribly subversive!!! |
| beenthere |
Posted - 6/29/2012 5:44:46 PM | show profile | flag this post
Of course they oppose critical thinking. They oppose ANY thinking. If they understood how to think, they would: 1. Know that the premise of the AHA came from their own party 2. Know that their presidential candidate also supported AHA and became the FIRST politician in the United States to implement it. But, no. Thinking? Nah, too hard. |
| etaoin shrdlu |
Posted - 6/30/2012 9:03:18 AM | show profile | flag this post
Louisianna gets in on the act.. by cutting off funding for libraries. Maybe Texans and Louisiannians can get together in Shreveport for a good old fashioned book burnin"! |
| etaoin shrdlu |
Posted - 6/30/2012 9:04:04 AM | show profile | flag this post
Forgot the link... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/06/louisiana-eliminates-state-funding-for-libraries.html |
| cruiser |
Posted - 6/30/2012 9:06:05 AM | show profile | flag this post
You people are so constrained by your own left wing indoctrinations that you just don't "get it." |
| Village Gal |
Posted - 6/30/2012 10:17:07 AM | show profile | flag this post
what don't we get? critical thinking has nothing to do with left wing or right wing. all students need to have critical thinking skills. |
| blackedtaped |
Posted - 6/30/2012 11:13:41 AM | show profile | flag this post
Well now I understand... My school did not provide any "critical thinking" training. No wonder I just can't understand things. Maybe if they had just taught "critical thinking" I would know the difference between a "tax" and a "penalty". Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up. Thanks again for the smile of the day. |
| etaoin shrdlu |
Posted - 6/30/2012 1:38:13 PM | show profile | flag this post
As pointed out above, critical thinking... is neither left nor right. It's thinking that questions assumptions. In Western civilization, it can be traced back to the Socratic method. Cruzo frequently claims to have that skill -- but since he doesn't even understand what it is, it's doubtful he ever acquired it in his education. As a result, he assumes he is always right -- and therefore never relies on critical thinking, only assumptions that the conventional wisdom of the right is correct. Blacked, you DO in fact exhibit critical thinking skills -- your posts routinely demonstrate that -- and you impress me as one of the more critical thinkers here. |
| blackedtaped |
Posted - 7/1/2012 10:04:13 AM | show profile | flag this post
Critical thinking Is not some class you take, there is not a "how to" book on critical thinking. It is a skill that is developed over time. Critical thinking is the result of constantly asking "why?" and not accepting "that's the way it is" as an answer. You want to teach our young people about critical thinking start by making them "think" not just repeat things. As adults we could help by setting better examples of critical thinking. Repeating "talking points" and the same old catch phrases teaches our young people that in today's society thinking is no longer required, others will do it for you. Huffington Post, Drudge, Crooks and Liars, Rush Limbaugh, and hundreds others like them are now the "critical thinkers", the rest just repeat what they say. I am convinced this is why as a nation we are the most divided we have been since the Civil War. |
| Village Gal |
Posted - 7/1/2012 10:19:24 AM | show profile | flag this post
Actually, Critical Thinking is a popular 3 credit course on many college campuses. Sometimes, it's cross listed with Philosophy or it is a Liberal arts elective. And there are numerous Critical Thinking text books. the one by Chaffee is in its 10th edition. |
| cruiser |
Posted - 7/1/2012 12:19:31 PM | show profile | flag this post
Why wait until college to teach critical thinking? That's because critical thnking, as a life skill, is NOT practiced in elementary and high school, where liberal, unionized teachers and administrators hold sway. I can directly compare my elementary and high school educations with those of my kids and grandkids. I know what was taught then...and what is NOT taught now. |
| Grateful Deadline |
Posted - 7/1/2012 12:36:58 PM | show profile | flag this post
Cruiser, do you know who tells K-12 teachers what to teach? |
| Village Gal |
Posted - 7/1/2012 3:40:16 PM | show profile | flag this post
I agree critical thinking should be taught earlier but it is hard to do when teachers are forced to "teach to the standardized test" and that emphasis is not the fault of teachers' unions. |
| cruiser |
Posted - 7/1/2012 7:29:45 PM | show profile | flag this post
Teachers who "teach to the standardized test" are derelict in their duties. That is exactly what was NOT supposed to happen under NCLB. And don't blame it entirely on Bush...he had a LOT of help from Teddy Kennedy. But I know that doesn't fit with the left wing narrative. |
| cruiser |
Posted - 7/1/2012 7:31:19 PM | show profile | flag this post
"do you know who tells K-12 teachers what to teach?" Please, PLEASE enlighten me, o font of all knowledge...NOT. |
| mpdodgson |
Posted - 7/1/2012 10:00:22 PM | show profile | flag this post
I think we've shown there should be a lot more courses on something around here. "Critical thinking Is not some class you take" Uh, Yea, it is. At most Ivy League colleges, and (holy shit) I found it in our Penn State catalogue too. "It is a skill that is developed over time." Good one. So is "Speech" and "Ethics". Doesn't mean college students shouldn't take an in-depth look into this does it? "Repeating "talking points" and the same old catch phrases teaches our young people that in today's society thinking is no longer required..." I think you're being overly critical (but that is your lovable grumble crochety nature). And while it is safe to blame the modern internet source of news ("Huffington Post, Drudge, Crooks and Liars, Rush Limbaugh,") HELL The Speaker of the House, the Min Whip, and the Min leader of the Senate are KINGS--MASTERS--of the talking points. And let's assume they're educated fellows. (and PS to cruize--speaking of talking points--"...elementary and high school, where liberal, unionized teachers and administrators hold sway." Good Lord. Aw, please save us from another Librul conspiracy---'They're indoctrinating our kids!!!' 'There's something in that Bake Sale Crap I tell Ya!!' Damn, you are such a parody of, well, you.) |
| cruiser |
Posted - 7/2/2012 1:20:48 AM | show profile | flag this post
"Uh, Yea, it is." It needn't be if critical thinking were taught all throughout school, beginning in elementary grades. |
| stopbs-- |
Posted - 7/2/2012 3:17:03 AM | show profile | flag this post
I must say "Critical Thinking" is the most important course which I took in both high school and university. It is one of those classes which will actually serve the dedicated student for the rest of his or her life. I have often questioned a poster or two in frustration here, asking if that person had ever taken critical thinking, since their post, at the time, made no sense. Learning to question authority and especially our own assumption, is essential to every aspects of our lives if we are to remain a free people. I, by the way, first learned of this course at a quite progressive religious school which also made us take courses in all of the worlds great religions. They were preparing us for the real work in which everyone was not like us. Re: This topic. I think that some of us are conveniently obscuring the rest of the article, in which the person in charge, admits it was a mistake to put the words "critical thinking" in the platform language to begin with. The craziness, to me, is found in the archaic system that won't allow the GOP to back and correct the mistake before a certain time. Taking the GOP leader at his word, it does not appear that the Texas Platform wants to outlaw critical thinking. I have no clue about these other educational concepts are which they are denouncing. |
| Grateful Deadline |
Posted - 7/2/2012 11:41:32 AM | show profile | flag this post
cruiser, to find out who tells teachers what to teach, look in on your K-12 schools. Find out what teachers are required to teach -- how they're required to fill the day, with what and why, and who decided, and how long a school day is and how many days there are. Talk with teachers about their frustrations over being unable to teach lifelong skills -- such as critical thinking, composition, how to balance a checkbook -- in order for their pupils to score well on the mandated achievement tests, and why that's important. Talk with principals, too. Ask to see a sample achievement test, and look for how much of it requires individual expression of thought and reasoning. Then talk with parents, school board members, members of the state board of education, and state legislators. Don't accept platitudes, instead digging deeply enough to develop a 360-degree picture of what's happening at the classroom level and why, where it originates, and what the expectations are, who determines them, how they originated and what the effect is. Then contact the teachers union to ask how it develops classroom curriculum. By this point, though, you will already know that the teachers union doesn't do this. |
| blackedtaped |
Posted - 7/3/2012 10:10:37 AM | show profile | flag this post
Thanks everyone... So many examples of true "critical thinking" I don't know where to start. Just let me say this, "yeah well......." is not what I call critical thinking. But to be honest, neither is that comment. Truth is none of us actually practice "critical thinking" nearly as much as we think we do. We all just jump on a side of an argument and refuse to recognize the merits of the other side. Too often we deliberately pick an outrageous point and attack that because it is too damn easy. This thread is a perfect example. The Texas GOP platform is several pages long, yet only one statement made it to this forum, a statement they have already admitted was wrong. Why? Because it was easy to attack. Now does anyone know what was in the rest of the GOP platform? Or for that matter what was in the democratic platform? Doesn't critical thinning require looking deeper into a subject than just sentence? |
| blackedtaped |
Posted - 7/3/2012 10:21:59 AM | show profile | flag this post
Oh, and to make this clear.... Critical thinking is not a class you take, it is a skill. You may take a course on developing critical thinking skills but critical thinking is the skill not the class. English is a language, spoken by a large percent of the population. We all took classes in school about the English language, but English is the language not the class. Stop confusing the name of some course you took with the actual subject matter. |
| it's just tv folks |
Posted - 7/3/2012 11:54:54 AM | show profile | flag this post
"Doesn't critical thinning require looking deeper into a subject than just sentence?" I guess they can teach a subject, but you don't have to learn it. Thanks for that insight blackedtaped. |
| blackedtaped |
Posted - 7/4/2012 10:51:21 AM | show profile | flag this post
Another even greater example.... Of a lack of critical thinking. Focus on the typo, ignore the message. In other words, take the easy way out, don' t think. Congrats, keep that up and you might just become my friend :-| |
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