Why isn't critical thinking taught in school from early on?

Critical thinking doesn’t get the dishwasher built any faster. We are made to make and consume.

And the ability to barf up facts from a textbook are easy to test.

@johnpowell, Tasty.

I don’t think there’s necessarily anything conspiratorial about it. I think part of the problem is that to teach critical thinking, you have to be able to think critically yourself. Before university, I had only a couple of teachers who were even capable of pushing me to think critically. I try to instil the skill in my kids, but dog knows if they’re getting it at school.

This is probably the biggest reason why we’re considering home-schooling our son. Yea there are definite pros and cons to doing so, but those I’ve met who have home-schooled for this reason (to give your child a mental edge) have children who definitely are a step ahead in this area.

It’s nearly impossible to teach critical thinking in large groups, and it’s nearly impossible to test for it with fill-in-the-circle tests. This means that underfunded schools can’t teach it effectively, and then when politicians start banging the drum for accountability and educational reform, the things that get tested are the things that are easy to test “objectively,” and teachers and schools are so desperate to do well on that test that they don’t spend any time on anything outside the test.

It’s not a conspiracy; it’s just the result of lack of funding and support for eduction.

(And then, if by some miracle you manage to start teaching critical thinking, some loon of a parent will demand to know why you’re not teaching relevant things.)

also, educating kids to be “critical” means different things at different developmental stages. further, there is some skills-based learning (some call it training) that is really important to do early on, particularly with literacy and numeracy.

i also echo the problem of class/group size. teaching kids to be critical in a safe space requires smaller ratios of grown-ups to kids. the size of most k – 12 classes necessitates a large degree of “do because i said so” just to manage the group.