A couple of decades ago, maybe in the nineties, the Texas Board of Education decided that critical thinking should not be in public school curricula. That board is the de facto arbiter of what goes into text books for the whole country and the rest, as they say, is History.
A couple of decades ago, maybe in the nineties, the Texas Board of Education decided that critical thinking should not be in public school curricula. That board is the de facto arbiter of what goes into text books for the whole country and the rest, as they say, is History.
Re Critical Thinking, why do I think of Critical Race Theory? Another thought: Far too often, the idea of religious freedom seems to be an excuse for intolerance.
That's religious "liberty" that is a screen for my "right" to treat you badly. It's a one-way right: businesses such as bakeries have the "right" to refuse service to gay couples, but not the right to insist that during a respiratory disease plague customers wear masks.
Yes, this is a problem. When I taught government and ancient and English history, we did not use textbooks. Teachers can teach critical thinking on their own by asking students to assess sources. Sadly, now because of standardized testing, it is teaching for the test. We have a friend who teachers in a heavily Hispanic and Old Russian district. He teachers elementary students some kind of creative writing class which was a coup for him. I know he is teaching those students to think on their own. He is also the world's greatest punner and speaks fluent Spanish, so his classes must be full of good fun.
A couple of decades ago, maybe in the nineties, the Texas Board of Education decided that critical thinking should not be in public school curricula. That board is the de facto arbiter of what goes into text books for the whole country and the rest, as they say, is History.
Re Critical Thinking, why do I think of Critical Race Theory? Another thought: Far too often, the idea of religious freedom seems to be an excuse for intolerance.
That's religious "liberty" that is a screen for my "right" to treat you badly. It's a one-way right: businesses such as bakeries have the "right" to refuse service to gay couples, but not the right to insist that during a respiratory disease plague customers wear masks.
Yes, this is a problem. When I taught government and ancient and English history, we did not use textbooks. Teachers can teach critical thinking on their own by asking students to assess sources. Sadly, now because of standardized testing, it is teaching for the test. We have a friend who teachers in a heavily Hispanic and Old Russian district. He teachers elementary students some kind of creative writing class which was a coup for him. I know he is teaching those students to think on their own. He is also the world's greatest punner and speaks fluent Spanish, so his classes must be full of good fun.