Comment

The 11 Most Mystifying Things the Tsarnaev Brothers Did

111
klys (maker of Silmarils)4/22/2013 6:50:09 pm PDT

re: #110 PT Barnum

That’s too bad. The scientific method is the ultimate expression of critical thinking, putting a premium on evidence.

Yeah, but too frequently science classes in high school get bogged down on the material and don’t focus on how it was arrived at or its application and exploration in the real world. And in a lot of places there’s no serious discussion of science before middle school at the earliest. So you end up with classes attempting go through at least the bare bones of biology, chemistry, and physics (and physics without calculus is really just cruel, because it turns into a ton of memorization because you don’t have the tools to derive formulas) and there’s no real appreciation of how this knowledge all came to be. At least in most places.

In English classes, there’s at least room to mention things like critical thinking when discussing the assigned reading. (Full disclosure: I spent most of senior year English class discussing Harry Potter fanfiction with my seatmate. But my English teacher that year left a lot to be desired.)