The need for educators to exercise their responsibility to “think otherwise” is particularly acute these days because many policymakers are determined to lead teachers and students down a road which they would have us believe leads to educational excellence, but, in fact, it leads in the opposite direction.
Let me cite just one egregious example. Texas Republicans would like to outlaw the teaching of critical thinking skills in schools. Under the Education Section of the 2012 Party Platform appears the following:
Knowledge-Based Education-We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome Based Education(OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
There is a lot to criticize in a statement like this, but let’s skip over the fact that all education is outcome based, the real issue being who has determined the outcomes and whether or not they are worthy of the label education. Can we also acknowledge that the goal of any earning is—or should be—mastery?
What I want to focus on here is the objection to teaching critical thinking skills. Is challenging someone’s fixed (as in rigid and inflexible) beliefs not a worthy goal of an education? If those beliefs are based on valid evidence, won’t they withstand the challenge?
Where would we be if Galileo had not challenged the fixed belief that earth was the center of the universe, if no one had challenged the belief in The Divine Right of Kings, if medical science had not challenged so many of society’s fixed ideas about illness
and health.
At a time when too many of our political leaders would have educators and those they educate blindly accept the ideas that they promote, it is critical for educators to exercise their right and their responsibility to “think otherwise.”Instead of tacitly accepting an educational prescription like the one above, they must challenge it—in the classroom and in the community.
As James Madison counseled: “The principles and modes of governments are too important to be disregarded by an inquisitive mind and I think are well worthy of critical examination by all students who have health and leisure.”
So, as we prepare to begin a new school year, let me paraphrase for teachers some advice from Voltaire: Think for yourself and teach your students to enjoy the privilege of doing so too. The alternative is to submit to the dictatorship of foolish ideas like the one above from the Texas Republican Party Platform.
Your comments are welcome.