A few weeks ago I happened to notice one of the daily prompts that some folks use as inspirations for writing posts. I forget the precise wording but it was something along the lines of what do you think schools ought to be teaching that they currently aren’t?
Of course, I think they ought to be doing a better job of teaching the stuff they’re already supposed to be teaching, in particular it seems many folks genuinely don’t understand how our government works, or at least how it’s supposed to work when we have a functioning government. I received half a year of a so-called civics course in high school in ninth grade (the other half was Pennsylvania history), and I suspect things haven’t changed much.
So one thing that I strongly believe should be done is that lessons on the way our government functions (or is supposed to function) should be integrated into all social studies courses, starting in elementary school, and they should be contrasted with the way other governments work, because ours is not always the best even when it is working.
I also would like them to be teaching probability theory, statistics, and especially critical thinking.
They shouldn’t merely be teaching each of these in a single course; they should be integrated thoroughly into the entire K-12 education system.
Yes, I know, I’m dreaming.
It would require retraining teachers at all levels, but a lot of thought has already been put into it.
This web site breaks things down and gives concrete examples. Here are the four core pillars of critical thinking:
- Analytical Reasoning (The “Why” Skill): The ability to break down complex problems, identify root causes, and understand cause-and-effect relationships rather than just looking at surface-level symptoms.
- Information Evaluation (The “Skepticism” Skill): The capacity to question sources, distinguish objective facts from subjective opinions, and identify underlying motives or biases.
- Perspective-Taking (The “Empathy” Skill): The willingness to step outside one’s own viewpoint, consider alternative angles, and evaluate situations objectively without emotional bias.
- Adaptive Problem Solving (The “Flexibility” Skill): The courage to test hypotheses, recognize logical flaws, and revise one’s own beliefs or strategies when presented with new evidence.
As far as probability theory and statistics, I think both of those are valuable skills to have in the modern world. I’m not talking about going into the complexities of either one, merely the basics, so students are at least given the tools to make more informed decisions about the information that’s being thrown at them every day.
Even if my dream were to come to pass, and these skills were taught through the entire K-12 system, I realize the skills would not stick with every student. But they’d stick with some of them, and that’s all we can hope for.
Finally, I’d like to see all students taught a comparative religions course to include all the major current religions of the world as well as the some of the older ones such as the ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian beliefs. Of course, my hope is that many students end up seeing the absurdity of all religions, but they probably will not, so my secondary hope is that they will at least form a greater understanding of religions that are not their own, and that will in turn foster less religious bigotry.