I wish all teachers taught students to think critically. Many Trump followers clearly never learned how to think critically. It’s a skill we definitely need these days.
I wish all teachers taught students to think critically. Many Trump followers clearly never learned how to think critically. It’s a skill we definitely need these days.
It has been my experience as a former teacher, that teachers who teach critical thinking are considered a threat to their more conventionally, less critically thinking colleagues and administrators. Without Administrator support you cannot continue because parents who are upset will be validated.
People who think critically are treated as misfits, and outliers as well. People do not want to be challenged or have their little reality bubbles burst.
The story of my life. My family always blazed its own trail and I was told to have the strength of my convictions. Family dinners are great opportunities to enforce these sorts of values.
Linda, lucky you. My parents wanted me to do well in school, so I had their support in that way. My mother and aunt were worried that i was a voracious reader and not that social until they found out through the daughter of a friend that I was a bit of a card at school.
I went back to school and took a critical thinking class in my '40s and it changed my life. If high schools taught critical thinking skills, I suspect that most people would actually enjoy having the ability to see when they are being misled. But by adulthood, apparently most people are deeply entrenched in a belief system which is failing them and leaves them vulnerable to conmen of every sort, including our leaders. Most people have no idea how gullible they are without critical thinking skills.
Craig, I wish there were a way to "introduce" critical thinking into messages for adults without them realizing that is what it is. Maybe it could be a scavenger hunt like Pokyman Go where a series of critical thinking type questions answered after having thought it through can get you the prize. I don't know what that would look like, but I know smarter people than I could figure it out.
I agree that education could be made fun. I used to enjoy watching "Where on Earth is Carmen San Diego" on PBS. It was a a geography class in the form of a game show for kids. I don't see why education for adults couldn't be presented in entertaining TV shows. Surely there is enough imagination in America to present civics in an entertaining way.
In my classes, we read strong and weak essays from a textbook and analyzed what made them work or not. And we learned how to write our own. They taught me what to look for when someone is trying to convince me of something. Are they backing up their argument with proof? And when I'm not sure, I can look it up. Now days, I can quickly and easily Google it. I know that lots of MAGAs parrot "Do your own research," but in many cases, they use poor sources. I recall hearing one woman telling a reporter that her proof of something Trump said was from Q! Not everyone wants the truth, but from my experience, facts and honesty make life much less confusing and stressful. I am definitely happier.
Craig, I enjoyed Carmen San Diego too. I watched it with my nieces and nephews when I was their nanny and we all loved it. OK, we really liked the group Rockapella that sang the theme song. During the Bicentennial, yea many years ago, I think it was CBS that presented pieces of history from the time of the country's founding. The pieces were about 5 minutes long or so and had a "celebrity" presenting the information and the bits were accompannied by photos and sometimes music of the time. Maybe for the semiquincentennial, in two years, a network could present points of citizenship in similar bite-sized pieces on TV networks and on the internet on a variety of platforms. It would be worth a try.
Terry, this is even worse during an entire lifetime if one is a woman and it is also difficult for in school for males perceived as nerds. This is one of the reasons I have mixed feelings about sports as the be all in the educational setting.
Actually I do too especially now as college sports has become bribery, inc. Personally, I would have sports as clubs and not part of the school day. I could write a book on how sports screws up schools. I knew we were in trouble when they became co-curricular rather than extra-curricular.
Terry, alas, sometimes bubbles need to be burst, possibly deflated a bit before the final pin is pushed in, because keeping people in their bubbles is not good for anyone except in rare situations and mental health workers know what that is. Maybe people need to see that what Trump has done by permitting some people to become outrageously rich while others struggle just to pay rent and eat could change some minds. Like JD Vance, they blame people for their situations when in reality, the rich often get rich through luck while they claim it is their own skills and intelligence; sometimes it is, but mostly it is luck. Poor people are where they are sometimes from bad luck, but that bad luck is often generational and a result of racism, classism, poor health, hopelessness, and the like. Implying if not outright claiming that poor people are lazy, ignorant, or uncaring las JD Vance and others do is another "big lie" that we haven't begun to tackle. Yes, gently pop some bubbles and be there to support the former inhabitants of those bubbles.
I agree but getting magats to listen is impossible. I have a maga brother and he's really lost his mind. He used to be a smart guy but I don't even recognize him anymore. Totally down the q- anon rabbit hole...
Terry, I am so sorry to learn about your brother. My sister married a guy who turned out to be a MAGA. It was terrible. She changed so much, hardly did anything with our family anymore, was verbally abused by him even though she took care of him as he was dying. She passed away last November and we didn't have a chance to fully reconnect after his passing 6 months earlier. It is so sad what Trump has done to this country and to families and friendships. Trump is simply evil! He surrounds himself with people equally evil and they have no positive ideas, even positive thoughts, just more hatred, distrust, fear, anger, resentment, and more. Why anyone listens to or follows them is truly a mystery to me, but they do and without some serious intervention, they are lost.
Thank you Ruth. And I’m sorry to hear about your sister. That sounds horrible. I went to visit my brother and kept telling him for 4 years that he was more important to me than politics but he didn’t feel the same. He attacked me and told he i wasn’t allowed to speak in his adopted state of Texas. I left and haven’t spoken to him since… very sad indeed. The convicted felon adjudicated rapist has been a disaster for our country.
Terry, your brother told you that you had no right to speak in Texas? That is crazy and demonstrates clearly that the Trump cult is not healthy for anyone. I remember what happened to my mom when her husband, my stepfather said they would listen to Rush Limbaugh every day, having it running in the background, and keeping Fox Not Nearly News on TV. She started spouting the lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and other crap she heard. My mother was a thinking caring decent person but she was becoming something else under the influence of Limbaugh and Fox (it sounds like a corrupt law firm). We finally had to tell her that we would no longer visit if she planned to have that crap running while we were there. Thankfully, she turned it off when we were around, and when my stepfather died, she stopped listening to it altogether, which was great. She returned to her old self for which we were grateful! That garbage can really mess with a person's mind. Everyone with any sense needs to boycott Fox and the other similar platforms and to vote against Trump and the entire ballot of Republican candidates who, like Limbaugh and Fox care only that they are influencing for the benefit of their handlers, corporate owners, donors, paycheck writers, not for the American people. So, the lies roll out and people are convinced they are truths. It's pretty disgusting!
Sadly people’s personalities do change based on who they hang out with in person or online or through media. My brother used to be a sweet guy now I don’t know him and sadly don’t really like who he has become. I just pray when the convicted felon adjudicated rapist ceases to exist maybe some people will come back to their former selves like your mother.
Terry, unfortunately hate and the other negative emotions resonate with people even more than love, caring, joy, and the other positives. I think when Christianity is followed, its message is to scrap the hatred, anger, fearmongering, resentment, greed, etc. and move into the realm of love, caring, justice, peace, and joy. Why people would prefer the other crap is beyond comprehension.
Those that have the personal courage to speak up and offer their countervailing views based on fact more often than not prevail. However, that requires those of opposing views no matter how acquired to be open minded, emotionally intelligent and responsible to suspend their beliefs. Sadly, there are many, many Americans who do not have that fundamental capacity.
There is always a set of teachers (usually in the coaching corner unfortunately) who want to sit around the teachers' room and bullshit, often praising those athletes who are not stellar individuals who bully other students and can be a horror to their siblings. They have their aides grade their tests which do not require any kind of critical thinking. Now there are standardized tests which do nothing but enrich testing companies and label schools as low performing. Here in Oregon the Department of Ed just put out the results of test scores and wouldn't you know, students (especially poorer or minority) students are struggling. The poor results are headlines everywhere. Here in Salem we have a large minority population in the school district and that is reflected in the scores.
And of course - very little effort to subsidize the schools that are struggling. Seems to me the object of our education system should be to EDUCATE! To put money where it is needed - what an idea!! Oh yeah, AND to pay those teachers who work at their craft!
Michele, what you are describing is something I have noted in our school district on the other side of the country, too. Standardized tests designed for rich, pampered, highly resourced children are thrust on impoverished communities where teachers are doing our best to meet students' needs for learning, but also have to work with students and families on broader issues that impact learning, like lack of good food, fear of violence (even though it does not happen often, just the fear of it keeps kids on edge and unable to clear their minds to think productively), multi-generational households where children through great grandparents are struggling together with few resources. It is so hard, then hearing that their children are subpar on tests never designed to really indicate anything but that they are subpar. We the People need to fix this, but no MAGA president or representatives at any level will do anything to help because they are working for a permanent underclass, hopefully Black, Hispanic, and female of any color whom they can use to do jobs "no one else wants to do" and at low wages because supposedly they won't be qualified for anything else. Girls are outdoing boys at every level these days, so men and MAGA have come up with all kinds of ways to put girls down and nudge them out of careers that would bring in the big bucks. That keeps men, mostly white men still controlling most of our nation's industries, businesses, and governments at all levels. Now with the fall of Roe, states have decided targeting women is their way of keeping power in male hands. It won't work the way it did in the past, so the fearmongering, letting women die for lack of abortions, and the like are being attempted as ways to show women who is boss. It is now up to women and our allies to stop the BS and put into power people who care about equity. We can do this in November by electing Democrats up and down the ballot everywhere.
Indeed Ruth. The two teachers we know best who are still working do their best to help their students. They are both bilingual which I am sure helps and one of them is a native Spanish speaker from Ecuador (a country which has gone downhill rapidly). I agree with your analysis of MAGA who cannot stand that for example, a black man became president. And yes, many men are furious that they can no longer just be white and male and dominant. As a woman, I have never believed for a second, that I was not a second class citizen, often judged by my looks and weight and threatening because I am reasonably intelligent, educated, and well read. This week I have been having an argument with a male about, even though he agreed with me, stereotyping a person, who happens to be female who noted that only the rich could afford the local organic and natural food store. I took exception to the rich part, but was careful to be understanding about those who are living hand to mouth and he told her she should buy less alcohol and potato chips and have a budget. I took him to task for his assumptions about poorer people. He ended up calling us both Karens and I once again told him to read his own words. I'll see if he responds again this am. This is of course, nothing to what you are talking about and Heather wrote about this am. When I post her letters, I always end with vote D. Yes, equity, something I have been for since I was seven and saw a racist incident in Chicago.
Michele, one thing I have learned over the years, any positive thing a man says about a woman or women is proof that he is not a misogynist. He forgets the other things he has said over time about women and the stereotypes he has planted on the heads of women, not you, those other women. Voting for Harris and Walz is a good thing for men, but it does not free them completely from the other statements they make about other political women like, say, Nancy Pelosi or Elizabeth Warren as being to forward and pushy. It seems men are fed misogyny from the cradle, unfortunately, often by their mothers who give them privileges and advantages their sisters and other female family members don't get. They pick it up when they can disrupt a class and well, "boys will be boys," but if a girl does the same thing, she is sent to the principal or parents are called. This whole abortion-related set of issues is just one face of misogyny, a powerful harmful one, but it's misogyny, a general disrespect for women. I believe most of it is fear that "THOSE woman people are taking over and they are not as good as I am."
Yes, they are fed it from the cradle and yes, often by their mothers. I can think of several examples of sons being favored over daughters. It is deep in most cultures where females may not count as children, where women are never adults and must be under the control of some man, where there are markedly different standards for women achievers...as the saying goes, have to be twice as good as a man. How many women in science for example, are not given credit or have their ideas stolen by men. How many times have I heard (from other women) that some highly intelligent professional woman is a ball crusher. Even my mother-in-law, a strong woman who was a daughter of a strong woman, expected the wives of her sons to eat practically nothing at a dinner where she had not fixed enough, but we were supposed to eat a teaspoon full so the guys could eat their fill. The end of this story is that we went out for a pizza afterwards. This example around food amuses me no end. At school the men ate like pigs and the women generally acted like they were not hungry when we had a facility meal. When I was at reiki intensives which were all women, the women ate with gusto and went back for second helpings. I do hope Harris and Walz prevail for all of us of either gender or any kind of ordinary person. The Musks of the world can go to hell.
Michele, that was so well-said! We women have done everything we could to cover for the failings of men in general, white men in particular. Even male leaders of major world religions pump out the BS that women are not as good as men or maybe, are as good, but have different "roles" than men, and those "roles" of course, are always of lesser value than the roles of men. So, the best woman is not of as high a quality as the worst man. That line of nonsense has been used regarding people of color vs. white people and immigrants vs. American citizens too. it is such a flawed argument, but it keeps getting pumped out as though there is truth to it; haven't most of the Nobel Prize winners been men? Maybe yes, but who does a lot of the grunt work so those men can get the prize? Whose work is often stolen and attributed to men? One thing that would definitely help, encourage our women friends not to over pamper their male children and teachers not to over indulge male students. Just those two things could be a start to helping boys to be less expecting of privileges they do not deserve. Then we can show respect for other women and their abilities, gifts, contributions, instead of tearing them down by pointing out every flaw, something we would rarely do to men in the same way. We need the ERA in our Constitution which Biden should do the day after the election results are declared, going to visit the National Archivist with Kamala Harris and ordering the fully ratified amendment officially entered into our Constitution. We need to stop playing around with Congress who passed the amendment and made up a time limit to please a bunch of scared old white men who are no longer in Congress and who had no right to place such a condition. OK, I have ranted on too long. Thanks so much for your comment!
Linda W: while that's often true there are approaches that can help work through the resistance. One of Gandhi's great spiritual insights is that non-violence (lack of desire or intent to harm) and truth are two sides of the same coin. That single insight can quickly help identify a lot of dis-information.
There is a possible silver lining. Republicans have created a climate of fear where many are afraid to speak out for fear of being attacked. In the privacy of the voting booth, they could express themselves in a way that will shock the pollsters and Republican establishment.
Linda, you are right about teachers that use critical thinking sometimes being intimidating to other teachers, but I have also found that those teachers, if they stand their ground and don't push such a style in the face of other teachers are respected, even appreciated. I have often helped teachers who want to incorporate critical thinking in their lessons, so I provide all kinds of strategies for using it in all subject areas without advertising that it is critical thinking. Explaining to colleagues and showing them how to do it for the benefit of their students is a strategy that can work.
I was a teacher years ago , now retired, and I can tell you that some of the students were strongly influenced by Rush Limbaugh and his attacks on the media, liberals and science. He was a master at spreading disinformation and he did more damage than we know, helping to prepare them to accept a charlatan as a truth teller. Trump became the beneficiary of his propaganda.
There's quite an interesting documentary available on Amazon Prime titled "The Brainwashing of My Dad." It explicitly calls out Limbaugh and details the steps he took that pushed people far right. It explains a LOT about MAGA and the propaganda techniques being used today.
Rush destroyed my marriage. We did OK, until My ex-husband started listening to Limbaugh on his morning and evening commutes. He started calling me a "feminazi" when I asked for respect, and it just became worse and worse over the three years I had to deal with it, staying because of the two kids. Mind you, I worked AND did all the childcare and housework, AND made $240 more a year than he did. I didn't care about the money, but apparently, he did. His refusal to do childcare and housework was based on "I fix the electrical things when they go bad - that pays more than maid work." This ugliness came up gradually and I can tell you it wasn't the man I married. Finally, I had enough and left. I'm not the only one. Rush seemed to reach down into men to reveal a dark well of nastiness in many of them.
Ally, mine is long gone. He wasn't particularly intelligent, but wanted to be the smartest person in the room. His mantra about others is that they never had an original thought. Anyone that he perceived as more intelligent was a problem. After he passed, my mother-in-law described him as difficult...an understatement in some ways.
Very much so, it is said they seek a father figure( mother figure?) I think we have a lot of over simplified voters, the orange man leads and they follow. They believe anything he says because he is a truth teller. He is dishonest above all else, yet they believe just the opposite.
To illustrate DJT's perverseness, DJT a gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential Medal-Of-Freedom... Wasn't Rush busted for selling Oxycontin at one point? Like DJT, Rush Limbaugh was a Performance Artist....
Just happened to find an old email I sent that included the worst part (listening to the 3 hours a day of Rush Limbaugh, away from FM channel coverage) during the 17 months I spent traveling 170,000 miles through the US and Canada, in otherwise great travel. I had visited the Steinbeck Museum before starting and read about his time as a War Correspondent (I even named my truck Rocinante like his, though I did so from the Mr Magoo version of "Don Quixote").
Long before anyone feared Sinclair Broadcasting, I put in a 17 month stint as an OTR driver, my version of an Aussie aboriginal Walk About, Steinbeck's Travels With Charlie, or Bill Moyers “Listening to America” 13,000 mile ground level trip. It was, to me, a series of trips that totaled 170,000 miles in 17 months, through 46 states and 4 trips to Canada to see as much of the country and people in it much closer up, actually talk to a lot of them. I'd already done about 60,000 miles in Vietnam and Thailand, though a lot of that was catching rides in anything that flew or went by road, very few watercraft, and no animals I can remember.
I really liked 99.9% of all the people I met. What I didn't like so much, was radios that played 3 hours of Rush Limbaugh then so many other RW propagandists everywhere I went except a few cities (and truck stops where you took your life in your hands if you dared suggest they watch anything but Jerry Springer). The individuals I met had a lot of varying views and particular perspectives on problems that did not match the radio tidal waves of blaming "other" people, the people I met would not be so hard on for any individuals they knew in the groups they were being encouraged to hate. Breitbart seems to promote a lot of those who encourage blind hate.
[The better imaginable sources of information were shown at a presentation I had just been at when I wrote the email]
The meeting I went to described the presenter thus: "Peter Meisen founded the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI) in 1991 to conduct research and education on the interconnection of electric networks between nations and continents..."
The World Resources Simulation Center technology approach is to create more high-tech, strategic planning and event facilities where you can literally "see" the critical regional and business trends, the relationships between issues and make informed choices more quickly. For far more suggested uses (outside of Military C&C, Missile Warning and SAC Command Post ones I was familiar with), especially education and large interdisciplinary conferences (including average public observers/contributors), see wrsc.org
It was inspired by Buckminster Fuller's Biosphere (now a Museum) built for the 1967 Montreal World Fair, Expo 67, an early version of what Command and Control centers feature with many large displays to graphically convey information rapidly for those with no time to read and digest so many interrelationships between different sources. Putin built a massive new one in 2015, even Proctor and Gamble has one to help sell soap. The CIA seemed to be trying to build a Climate threat group but that hasn't been heard from since.
If the Government can't build it, I'm all for American entrepreneurs setting up such facilities where they follow what Peter Meisen got out of Bucky Fuller as useful advice, "Find out what's wanted, and needed," and go for it. They spoke of thinking differently form whatever got us into problems, to me, thinking outside the boxes, helped by looking outside all the boxes to see what bigger overviews can reveal when you look over as many boxes as you can. Some Russian emigre's brought over TRIZ at the end of the Cold War, literally: "theory of the resolution of invention-related tasks") is "a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature." I believe Katherine Poehlmann from RAND and a few other of our original members of the Society for Concurrent Engineering attended a meeting where we first heard of it. It was used by Ford I believe, but was not as openly incorporated here as it could have been (in my view from not wanting to appear to be learning too much from Russians). I believe the SCPDNET (Concurrent Product Development) is the more recognized proponent of concurrent perspectives in narrower fields where it pays off in product development of those which will prove to have longer life cycles before being obsolete, long enough to pay back the development costs.
I'll have to spend more time looking up the Rocky Mountain Institute for the ways they look at business interest reality checks, and how they might participate in broader presentations using facilities like them.
If you go through some of the WRSC links you can find out more about how a similar, multi-large display "Technology Enabled Active Learning" application is being used and improved, something with a bit more personal connection to someone I met. See https://icampus.mit.edu/projects/teal/
Our friend, Katie Vale, was involved in a lot of MIT projects (I think for 15 years), before she worked at Harvard before finally going to Bates where "...Vale’s other accomplishments included the introduction of a high-capacity computing cluster for Bates faculty working with big data; strengthening of the library’s longstanding collaborations with Colby and Bowdoin; a collaborative project with the Dean of the Faculty to create a public, searchable online directory of Bates faculty and their areas of academic expertise; creation of a digital animation studio in Pettigrew Hall; completion of a new Academic Resource Commons in Ladd Library; and a partnership with the College Store to reduce textbook costs..." according to https://www.bates.edu/news/2016/12/01/katie-vale-passes-at-age-51/
Going to the link above: "...Bates’ HPCC, however, is designed as a “community-based resource as opposed to one that would just benefit specific faculty members,” explains Andrew White, director of academic and client services for Information and Library Services. “Ours is for anyone who has the need to examine data in a deep way...”
That's the spirit of Katie I got to know a bit of, from talking to real people, not listening to talk radio.
I'd heard about "walk-abouts" at a very young age without knowing much about them. To me it was sort of like my grandfather's saying that a farmer's shadow was the best fertilizer (you have to go and see what actually happening to have a clue as to what can be done).
My dad and i argued about Rush. He listened to him and was unhappy that I didn't. Swear words ensued. I just hope he would have seen through death star. My second stepmother also instituted a scanner, so they heard all the police and emergency calls which gives people a distorted view of what is going on.
We had customers in OK and KS. Back in the 1990's, the choice of FM radio stations was country or Rush. So I listened to Rush during commercial breaks on the one or two FM stations in Central KS and Northern OK.
Many of my friends did the same thing when driving around the Midwest. Rush wasn't near as bad as Hannity is to listen to, but he definitely bent the truth some.
How can someone who relies on lies to confirm their bias or prejudice ever learn to think critically? Lies fuel and reinforce people's fears and hatred. How did Hitler manage to rise to power? The Germans were educated, not ignorant, yet they accepted the Big Lie because it validated their fears and hatred.
"[Soviets]... created false parties to further splinter the opposition..."
It is an American tragedy that the Green party is lead by Jill Stein - who rejects voting as a collective exercise in taking power and pushes voting as an individual exercise in personal expression. Stein's leftish-wing vote splitting elects Republicans. Stein has turned the Green party into an ally of MAGAGRU. It is no surprise Stein is a favorite of Putin media. Parties are built from the ground up. Some local Green candidates have succeeded and done well. But Stein's once every four years ego trip is a disservice to the party - and obviously to the nation and planet.
And yes, it is a puzzle that otherwise educated and concerned citizens fall in line rather than voting strategically and taking power. Even incremental Democratic progress is better than GOP corporate clerical nihilism.
Jill Stein has understood that the issues for which she is fighting are of paramount importance, but she is stupid and has apparently understood nothing else. Incapable of thinking even one step ahead; likewise the people who chose her to lead them. Unless she was put there by the Foes of the Earth, that is...
The most maddening experience anyone can have is to persuade people to adopt a sound course of action which they have not understood, and here is someone championing a valid issue who is only adept at persuading people to elect her party's worst enemies. Old-fashioned Marxists would have called her MAGA's "objective ally".
Locally, this year in Maine CD2 has presented some challenges to Vote Blue No Matter Who ... but as you say, thinking of the big picture and next steps is essential.
It has been said that "voting is but one note in the symphony of democracy". The conversations all of us have about what's important and how we can share power are part of that symphony. I can appreciate some of the ideas Jill Stein is fighting for. There is a time for dialog and a time to vote in our real world system of elections. Perhaps Jill Stein could find the wisdom to endorse Harris/Walz as the best way to serve the interests of her supporters, just as some Republicans are coming out for Harris. That would be a powerful and classy move with an eye to the future.
Lin- Did you vote today? The 4 of us went to our town Hall and voted "absentee" in person.
There are 5 Presidential candidates and because of ranked choice voting I voted for 3 on the ballot and then wrote myself in just to make sure Trump doesn't get any of the ranked choice votes from me. :)
Maine leads in voter access: RCV, same day registration, protecting the voting rights of the incarcerated. DIRIGO ("...is the state motto of Maine, having once been the only state to hold its elections in September.")
I'm sure it's an uphill battle for those who are trying to teach critical thinking skills. Many students come from homes that emphasize religion, which encourages followers not to think, and beliefs or fears that focus on facts if they're distasteful is threatening to the whole structure. Many people tend to believe what they want to be true, instead actually accepting what is true. If one's parents function like this, it's much harder to develop critical thinking skills.
"critical thinking skills" Wellll, you have to get up to thinking before you train for critical thinking. Right? Try a reflexive move to critically think about thinking. Be sure to add in some critical thinking about who the "I" is that has the needed agency to do this so called thinking. I'll suggest that if originality has anything to do with thinking then there isn't much if any of it going on. Ask any number of people what is it to think and see if any are thinking for themselves or even thinking.
Kathy, the challenge for teachers is that so many are hobbled by curricula that are about teaching specific things and how to get the "right" answer. Teachers need to learn clever ways to get around this teaching approach by subtlely adding critical thinking questions when possible to every single lesson, using why and how questions as well as what if, what could? This works even in math if that math is being related to real life situations. Our teachers' colleges could develop this into specific teaching strategies that can be used even in districts that specifically don't want children taught to think critically, say in Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, and some of the other former confederate states and the confederate wannabee states. That's not to say that there aren't other states that want only the "right" answer, but that there is a mass of them in the areas I mentioned. Confronting the "Big Lie" does not work well, but undermining it with care and planning can do it. Maybe even asking Trump why he likes to lie so often or what he gets from lying so often. A trusted reporter could do that. Trump will try to turn it on the questioner, but that person could laugh and say, "there you go again, lying right in front of all these people." What I know is that I have not heard the word lie more than once or twice in a major media report in the 9+ years since Trump's escalator ride and that has let a lot of people think what Republicans are saying are not lies when they are.
Yes. It's called teaching with intentionality. If I do -------, then this will happen. Problem solving works best when done with present moment intention.
I wish all teachers taught students to think critically. Many Trump followers clearly never learned how to think critically. It’s a skill we definitely need these days.
It has been my experience as a former teacher, that teachers who teach critical thinking are considered a threat to their more conventionally, less critically thinking colleagues and administrators. Without Administrator support you cannot continue because parents who are upset will be validated.
People who think critically are treated as misfits, and outliers as well. People do not want to be challenged or have their little reality bubbles burst.
The story of my life. My family always blazed its own trail and I was told to have the strength of my convictions. Family dinners are great opportunities to enforce these sorts of values.
Linda, lucky you. My parents wanted me to do well in school, so I had their support in that way. My mother and aunt were worried that i was a voracious reader and not that social until they found out through the daughter of a friend that I was a bit of a card at school.
I went back to school and took a critical thinking class in my '40s and it changed my life. If high schools taught critical thinking skills, I suspect that most people would actually enjoy having the ability to see when they are being misled. But by adulthood, apparently most people are deeply entrenched in a belief system which is failing them and leaves them vulnerable to conmen of every sort, including our leaders. Most people have no idea how gullible they are without critical thinking skills.
Craig, I wish there were a way to "introduce" critical thinking into messages for adults without them realizing that is what it is. Maybe it could be a scavenger hunt like Pokyman Go where a series of critical thinking type questions answered after having thought it through can get you the prize. I don't know what that would look like, but I know smarter people than I could figure it out.
I agree that education could be made fun. I used to enjoy watching "Where on Earth is Carmen San Diego" on PBS. It was a a geography class in the form of a game show for kids. I don't see why education for adults couldn't be presented in entertaining TV shows. Surely there is enough imagination in America to present civics in an entertaining way.
In my classes, we read strong and weak essays from a textbook and analyzed what made them work or not. And we learned how to write our own. They taught me what to look for when someone is trying to convince me of something. Are they backing up their argument with proof? And when I'm not sure, I can look it up. Now days, I can quickly and easily Google it. I know that lots of MAGAs parrot "Do your own research," but in many cases, they use poor sources. I recall hearing one woman telling a reporter that her proof of something Trump said was from Q! Not everyone wants the truth, but from my experience, facts and honesty make life much less confusing and stressful. I am definitely happier.
Craig, I enjoyed Carmen San Diego too. I watched it with my nieces and nephews when I was their nanny and we all loved it. OK, we really liked the group Rockapella that sang the theme song. During the Bicentennial, yea many years ago, I think it was CBS that presented pieces of history from the time of the country's founding. The pieces were about 5 minutes long or so and had a "celebrity" presenting the information and the bits were accompannied by photos and sometimes music of the time. Maybe for the semiquincentennial, in two years, a network could present points of citizenship in similar bite-sized pieces on TV networks and on the internet on a variety of platforms. It would be worth a try.
Terry, this is even worse during an entire lifetime if one is a woman and it is also difficult for in school for males perceived as nerds. This is one of the reasons I have mixed feelings about sports as the be all in the educational setting.
I have strong negative feelings about sports being elevated above scholarship.
Actually I do too especially now as college sports has become bribery, inc. Personally, I would have sports as clubs and not part of the school day. I could write a book on how sports screws up schools. I knew we were in trouble when they became co-curricular rather than extra-curricular.
Terry, alas, sometimes bubbles need to be burst, possibly deflated a bit before the final pin is pushed in, because keeping people in their bubbles is not good for anyone except in rare situations and mental health workers know what that is. Maybe people need to see that what Trump has done by permitting some people to become outrageously rich while others struggle just to pay rent and eat could change some minds. Like JD Vance, they blame people for their situations when in reality, the rich often get rich through luck while they claim it is their own skills and intelligence; sometimes it is, but mostly it is luck. Poor people are where they are sometimes from bad luck, but that bad luck is often generational and a result of racism, classism, poor health, hopelessness, and the like. Implying if not outright claiming that poor people are lazy, ignorant, or uncaring las JD Vance and others do is another "big lie" that we haven't begun to tackle. Yes, gently pop some bubbles and be there to support the former inhabitants of those bubbles.
I agree but getting magats to listen is impossible. I have a maga brother and he's really lost his mind. He used to be a smart guy but I don't even recognize him anymore. Totally down the q- anon rabbit hole...
Terry, I am so sorry to learn about your brother. My sister married a guy who turned out to be a MAGA. It was terrible. She changed so much, hardly did anything with our family anymore, was verbally abused by him even though she took care of him as he was dying. She passed away last November and we didn't have a chance to fully reconnect after his passing 6 months earlier. It is so sad what Trump has done to this country and to families and friendships. Trump is simply evil! He surrounds himself with people equally evil and they have no positive ideas, even positive thoughts, just more hatred, distrust, fear, anger, resentment, and more. Why anyone listens to or follows them is truly a mystery to me, but they do and without some serious intervention, they are lost.
Thank you Ruth. And I’m sorry to hear about your sister. That sounds horrible. I went to visit my brother and kept telling him for 4 years that he was more important to me than politics but he didn’t feel the same. He attacked me and told he i wasn’t allowed to speak in his adopted state of Texas. I left and haven’t spoken to him since… very sad indeed. The convicted felon adjudicated rapist has been a disaster for our country.
Terry, your brother told you that you had no right to speak in Texas? That is crazy and demonstrates clearly that the Trump cult is not healthy for anyone. I remember what happened to my mom when her husband, my stepfather said they would listen to Rush Limbaugh every day, having it running in the background, and keeping Fox Not Nearly News on TV. She started spouting the lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and other crap she heard. My mother was a thinking caring decent person but she was becoming something else under the influence of Limbaugh and Fox (it sounds like a corrupt law firm). We finally had to tell her that we would no longer visit if she planned to have that crap running while we were there. Thankfully, she turned it off when we were around, and when my stepfather died, she stopped listening to it altogether, which was great. She returned to her old self for which we were grateful! That garbage can really mess with a person's mind. Everyone with any sense needs to boycott Fox and the other similar platforms and to vote against Trump and the entire ballot of Republican candidates who, like Limbaugh and Fox care only that they are influencing for the benefit of their handlers, corporate owners, donors, paycheck writers, not for the American people. So, the lies roll out and people are convinced they are truths. It's pretty disgusting!
Sadly people’s personalities do change based on who they hang out with in person or online or through media. My brother used to be a sweet guy now I don’t know him and sadly don’t really like who he has become. I just pray when the convicted felon adjudicated rapist ceases to exist maybe some people will come back to their former selves like your mother.
It has happened with my son and grandson, too. As you know, Terry, it is so painful.
Sorry to hear Hope, it is so painful and just a shame, not necessary. That disgusting creature has sown so much hate.
Terry, unfortunately hate and the other negative emotions resonate with people even more than love, caring, joy, and the other positives. I think when Christianity is followed, its message is to scrap the hatred, anger, fearmongering, resentment, greed, etc. and move into the realm of love, caring, justice, peace, and joy. Why people would prefer the other crap is beyond comprehension.
Pitiful.
Those that have the personal courage to speak up and offer their countervailing views based on fact more often than not prevail. However, that requires those of opposing views no matter how acquired to be open minded, emotionally intelligent and responsible to suspend their beliefs. Sadly, there are many, many Americans who do not have that fundamental capacity.
Indeed
Yes, I am a retired teacher who experienced this often.
There is always a set of teachers (usually in the coaching corner unfortunately) who want to sit around the teachers' room and bullshit, often praising those athletes who are not stellar individuals who bully other students and can be a horror to their siblings. They have their aides grade their tests which do not require any kind of critical thinking. Now there are standardized tests which do nothing but enrich testing companies and label schools as low performing. Here in Oregon the Department of Ed just put out the results of test scores and wouldn't you know, students (especially poorer or minority) students are struggling. The poor results are headlines everywhere. Here in Salem we have a large minority population in the school district and that is reflected in the scores.
And of course - very little effort to subsidize the schools that are struggling. Seems to me the object of our education system should be to EDUCATE! To put money where it is needed - what an idea!! Oh yeah, AND to pay those teachers who work at their craft!
Michele, what you are describing is something I have noted in our school district on the other side of the country, too. Standardized tests designed for rich, pampered, highly resourced children are thrust on impoverished communities where teachers are doing our best to meet students' needs for learning, but also have to work with students and families on broader issues that impact learning, like lack of good food, fear of violence (even though it does not happen often, just the fear of it keeps kids on edge and unable to clear their minds to think productively), multi-generational households where children through great grandparents are struggling together with few resources. It is so hard, then hearing that their children are subpar on tests never designed to really indicate anything but that they are subpar. We the People need to fix this, but no MAGA president or representatives at any level will do anything to help because they are working for a permanent underclass, hopefully Black, Hispanic, and female of any color whom they can use to do jobs "no one else wants to do" and at low wages because supposedly they won't be qualified for anything else. Girls are outdoing boys at every level these days, so men and MAGA have come up with all kinds of ways to put girls down and nudge them out of careers that would bring in the big bucks. That keeps men, mostly white men still controlling most of our nation's industries, businesses, and governments at all levels. Now with the fall of Roe, states have decided targeting women is their way of keeping power in male hands. It won't work the way it did in the past, so the fearmongering, letting women die for lack of abortions, and the like are being attempted as ways to show women who is boss. It is now up to women and our allies to stop the BS and put into power people who care about equity. We can do this in November by electing Democrats up and down the ballot everywhere.
Indeed Ruth. The two teachers we know best who are still working do their best to help their students. They are both bilingual which I am sure helps and one of them is a native Spanish speaker from Ecuador (a country which has gone downhill rapidly). I agree with your analysis of MAGA who cannot stand that for example, a black man became president. And yes, many men are furious that they can no longer just be white and male and dominant. As a woman, I have never believed for a second, that I was not a second class citizen, often judged by my looks and weight and threatening because I am reasonably intelligent, educated, and well read. This week I have been having an argument with a male about, even though he agreed with me, stereotyping a person, who happens to be female who noted that only the rich could afford the local organic and natural food store. I took exception to the rich part, but was careful to be understanding about those who are living hand to mouth and he told her she should buy less alcohol and potato chips and have a budget. I took him to task for his assumptions about poorer people. He ended up calling us both Karens and I once again told him to read his own words. I'll see if he responds again this am. This is of course, nothing to what you are talking about and Heather wrote about this am. When I post her letters, I always end with vote D. Yes, equity, something I have been for since I was seven and saw a racist incident in Chicago.
Michele, one thing I have learned over the years, any positive thing a man says about a woman or women is proof that he is not a misogynist. He forgets the other things he has said over time about women and the stereotypes he has planted on the heads of women, not you, those other women. Voting for Harris and Walz is a good thing for men, but it does not free them completely from the other statements they make about other political women like, say, Nancy Pelosi or Elizabeth Warren as being to forward and pushy. It seems men are fed misogyny from the cradle, unfortunately, often by their mothers who give them privileges and advantages their sisters and other female family members don't get. They pick it up when they can disrupt a class and well, "boys will be boys," but if a girl does the same thing, she is sent to the principal or parents are called. This whole abortion-related set of issues is just one face of misogyny, a powerful harmful one, but it's misogyny, a general disrespect for women. I believe most of it is fear that "THOSE woman people are taking over and they are not as good as I am."
Yes, they are fed it from the cradle and yes, often by their mothers. I can think of several examples of sons being favored over daughters. It is deep in most cultures where females may not count as children, where women are never adults and must be under the control of some man, where there are markedly different standards for women achievers...as the saying goes, have to be twice as good as a man. How many women in science for example, are not given credit or have their ideas stolen by men. How many times have I heard (from other women) that some highly intelligent professional woman is a ball crusher. Even my mother-in-law, a strong woman who was a daughter of a strong woman, expected the wives of her sons to eat practically nothing at a dinner where she had not fixed enough, but we were supposed to eat a teaspoon full so the guys could eat their fill. The end of this story is that we went out for a pizza afterwards. This example around food amuses me no end. At school the men ate like pigs and the women generally acted like they were not hungry when we had a facility meal. When I was at reiki intensives which were all women, the women ate with gusto and went back for second helpings. I do hope Harris and Walz prevail for all of us of either gender or any kind of ordinary person. The Musks of the world can go to hell.
Michele, that was so well-said! We women have done everything we could to cover for the failings of men in general, white men in particular. Even male leaders of major world religions pump out the BS that women are not as good as men or maybe, are as good, but have different "roles" than men, and those "roles" of course, are always of lesser value than the roles of men. So, the best woman is not of as high a quality as the worst man. That line of nonsense has been used regarding people of color vs. white people and immigrants vs. American citizens too. it is such a flawed argument, but it keeps getting pumped out as though there is truth to it; haven't most of the Nobel Prize winners been men? Maybe yes, but who does a lot of the grunt work so those men can get the prize? Whose work is often stolen and attributed to men? One thing that would definitely help, encourage our women friends not to over pamper their male children and teachers not to over indulge male students. Just those two things could be a start to helping boys to be less expecting of privileges they do not deserve. Then we can show respect for other women and their abilities, gifts, contributions, instead of tearing them down by pointing out every flaw, something we would rarely do to men in the same way. We need the ERA in our Constitution which Biden should do the day after the election results are declared, going to visit the National Archivist with Kamala Harris and ordering the fully ratified amendment officially entered into our Constitution. We need to stop playing around with Congress who passed the amendment and made up a time limit to please a bunch of scared old white men who are no longer in Congress and who had no right to place such a condition. OK, I have ranted on too long. Thanks so much for your comment!
I had in mind a Nobel example...Crick and Watson.
Linda W: while that's often true there are approaches that can help work through the resistance. One of Gandhi's great spiritual insights is that non-violence (lack of desire or intent to harm) and truth are two sides of the same coin. That single insight can quickly help identify a lot of dis-information.
There is a possible silver lining. Republicans have created a climate of fear where many are afraid to speak out for fear of being attacked. In the privacy of the voting booth, they could express themselves in a way that will shock the pollsters and Republican establishment.
Linda, you are right about teachers that use critical thinking sometimes being intimidating to other teachers, but I have also found that those teachers, if they stand their ground and don't push such a style in the face of other teachers are respected, even appreciated. I have often helped teachers who want to incorporate critical thinking in their lessons, so I provide all kinds of strategies for using it in all subject areas without advertising that it is critical thinking. Explaining to colleagues and showing them how to do it for the benefit of their students is a strategy that can work.
I was a teacher years ago , now retired, and I can tell you that some of the students were strongly influenced by Rush Limbaugh and his attacks on the media, liberals and science. He was a master at spreading disinformation and he did more damage than we know, helping to prepare them to accept a charlatan as a truth teller. Trump became the beneficiary of his propaganda.
There's quite an interesting documentary available on Amazon Prime titled "The Brainwashing of My Dad." It explicitly calls out Limbaugh and details the steps he took that pushed people far right. It explains a LOT about MAGA and the propaganda techniques being used today.
Rush destroyed my marriage. We did OK, until My ex-husband started listening to Limbaugh on his morning and evening commutes. He started calling me a "feminazi" when I asked for respect, and it just became worse and worse over the three years I had to deal with it, staying because of the two kids. Mind you, I worked AND did all the childcare and housework, AND made $240 more a year than he did. I didn't care about the money, but apparently, he did. His refusal to do childcare and housework was based on "I fix the electrical things when they go bad - that pays more than maid work." This ugliness came up gradually and I can tell you it wasn't the man I married. Finally, I had enough and left. I'm not the only one. Rush seemed to reach down into men to reveal a dark well of nastiness in many of them.
So unfortunate. And Trump cheapened the Medal of Honor giving it to Rush - a man who devoted his life to teaching Americans to hate one another.
That is a heck of a documentary! Described my Father-in-law to a T.
Ally, mine is long gone. He wasn't particularly intelligent, but wanted to be the smartest person in the room. His mantra about others is that they never had an original thought. Anyone that he perceived as more intelligent was a problem. After he passed, my mother-in-law described him as difficult...an understatement in some ways.
Drama ie perceived evildoers trumps everything else in how emotion plays a large if not basic part in what we "choose" or are persuaded to believe.
Selecting a president is an emotional matter for most people.
usually an oversimplified choice?
Very much so, it is said they seek a father figure( mother figure?) I think we have a lot of over simplified voters, the orange man leads and they follow. They believe anything he says because he is a truth teller. He is dishonest above all else, yet they believe just the opposite.
It seems bizzaro, doesn't it!
Yes indeed, fear and hatred are the strongest human emotions. Politicians have always understood and exploited the basis of human emotions.
sometimes indeed do! There times though when these work in synergy. Best to favour politicians who cater to the better angels of our nature
To illustrate DJT's perverseness, DJT a gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential Medal-Of-Freedom... Wasn't Rush busted for selling Oxycontin at one point? Like DJT, Rush Limbaugh was a Performance Artist....
Generous description of "performance" for both of them!
Come to think of it - pretty generous description of Artist!
Just happened to find an old email I sent that included the worst part (listening to the 3 hours a day of Rush Limbaugh, away from FM channel coverage) during the 17 months I spent traveling 170,000 miles through the US and Canada, in otherwise great travel. I had visited the Steinbeck Museum before starting and read about his time as a War Correspondent (I even named my truck Rocinante like his, though I did so from the Mr Magoo version of "Don Quixote").
Long before anyone feared Sinclair Broadcasting, I put in a 17 month stint as an OTR driver, my version of an Aussie aboriginal Walk About, Steinbeck's Travels With Charlie, or Bill Moyers “Listening to America” 13,000 mile ground level trip. It was, to me, a series of trips that totaled 170,000 miles in 17 months, through 46 states and 4 trips to Canada to see as much of the country and people in it much closer up, actually talk to a lot of them. I'd already done about 60,000 miles in Vietnam and Thailand, though a lot of that was catching rides in anything that flew or went by road, very few watercraft, and no animals I can remember.
I really liked 99.9% of all the people I met. What I didn't like so much, was radios that played 3 hours of Rush Limbaugh then so many other RW propagandists everywhere I went except a few cities (and truck stops where you took your life in your hands if you dared suggest they watch anything but Jerry Springer). The individuals I met had a lot of varying views and particular perspectives on problems that did not match the radio tidal waves of blaming "other" people, the people I met would not be so hard on for any individuals they knew in the groups they were being encouraged to hate. Breitbart seems to promote a lot of those who encourage blind hate.
[The better imaginable sources of information were shown at a presentation I had just been at when I wrote the email]
The meeting I went to described the presenter thus: "Peter Meisen founded the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI) in 1991 to conduct research and education on the interconnection of electric networks between nations and continents..."
The World Resources Simulation Center technology approach is to create more high-tech, strategic planning and event facilities where you can literally "see" the critical regional and business trends, the relationships between issues and make informed choices more quickly. For far more suggested uses (outside of Military C&C, Missile Warning and SAC Command Post ones I was familiar with), especially education and large interdisciplinary conferences (including average public observers/contributors), see wrsc.org
It was inspired by Buckminster Fuller's Biosphere (now a Museum) built for the 1967 Montreal World Fair, Expo 67, an early version of what Command and Control centers feature with many large displays to graphically convey information rapidly for those with no time to read and digest so many interrelationships between different sources. Putin built a massive new one in 2015, even Proctor and Gamble has one to help sell soap. The CIA seemed to be trying to build a Climate threat group but that hasn't been heard from since.
If the Government can't build it, I'm all for American entrepreneurs setting up such facilities where they follow what Peter Meisen got out of Bucky Fuller as useful advice, "Find out what's wanted, and needed," and go for it. They spoke of thinking differently form whatever got us into problems, to me, thinking outside the boxes, helped by looking outside all the boxes to see what bigger overviews can reveal when you look over as many boxes as you can. Some Russian emigre's brought over TRIZ at the end of the Cold War, literally: "theory of the resolution of invention-related tasks") is "a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature." I believe Katherine Poehlmann from RAND and a few other of our original members of the Society for Concurrent Engineering attended a meeting where we first heard of it. It was used by Ford I believe, but was not as openly incorporated here as it could have been (in my view from not wanting to appear to be learning too much from Russians). I believe the SCPDNET (Concurrent Product Development) is the more recognized proponent of concurrent perspectives in narrower fields where it pays off in product development of those which will prove to have longer life cycles before being obsolete, long enough to pay back the development costs.
I'll have to spend more time looking up the Rocky Mountain Institute for the ways they look at business interest reality checks, and how they might participate in broader presentations using facilities like them.
If you go through some of the WRSC links you can find out more about how a similar, multi-large display "Technology Enabled Active Learning" application is being used and improved, something with a bit more personal connection to someone I met. See https://icampus.mit.edu/projects/teal/
Our friend, Katie Vale, was involved in a lot of MIT projects (I think for 15 years), before she worked at Harvard before finally going to Bates where "...Vale’s other accomplishments included the introduction of a high-capacity computing cluster for Bates faculty working with big data; strengthening of the library’s longstanding collaborations with Colby and Bowdoin; a collaborative project with the Dean of the Faculty to create a public, searchable online directory of Bates faculty and their areas of academic expertise; creation of a digital animation studio in Pettigrew Hall; completion of a new Academic Resource Commons in Ladd Library; and a partnership with the College Store to reduce textbook costs..." according to https://www.bates.edu/news/2016/12/01/katie-vale-passes-at-age-51/
Going to the link above: "...Bates’ HPCC, however, is designed as a “community-based resource as opposed to one that would just benefit specific faculty members,” explains Andrew White, director of academic and client services for Information and Library Services. “Ours is for anyone who has the need to examine data in a deep way...”
That's the spirit of Katie I got to know a bit of, from talking to real people, not listening to talk radio.
Australian Aborigines have 'Walk-Abouts' , so do some American Indian Medicine Men....
I'd heard about "walk-abouts" at a very young age without knowing much about them. To me it was sort of like my grandfather's saying that a farmer's shadow was the best fertilizer (you have to go and see what actually happening to have a clue as to what can be done).
My dad and i argued about Rush. He listened to him and was unhappy that I didn't. Swear words ensued. I just hope he would have seen through death star. My second stepmother also instituted a scanner, so they heard all the police and emergency calls which gives people a distorted view of what is going on.
We had customers in OK and KS. Back in the 1990's, the choice of FM radio stations was country or Rush. So I listened to Rush during commercial breaks on the one or two FM stations in Central KS and Northern OK.
Many of my friends did the same thing when driving around the Midwest. Rush wasn't near as bad as Hannity is to listen to, but he definitely bent the truth some.
How can someone who relies on lies to confirm their bias or prejudice ever learn to think critically? Lies fuel and reinforce people's fears and hatred. How did Hitler manage to rise to power? The Germans were educated, not ignorant, yet they accepted the Big Lie because it validated their fears and hatred.
"[Soviets]... created false parties to further splinter the opposition..."
It is an American tragedy that the Green party is lead by Jill Stein - who rejects voting as a collective exercise in taking power and pushes voting as an individual exercise in personal expression. Stein's leftish-wing vote splitting elects Republicans. Stein has turned the Green party into an ally of MAGAGRU. It is no surprise Stein is a favorite of Putin media. Parties are built from the ground up. Some local Green candidates have succeeded and done well. But Stein's once every four years ego trip is a disservice to the party - and obviously to the nation and planet.
And yes, it is a puzzle that otherwise educated and concerned citizens fall in line rather than voting strategically and taking power. Even incremental Democratic progress is better than GOP corporate clerical nihilism.
Jill Stein has understood that the issues for which she is fighting are of paramount importance, but she is stupid and has apparently understood nothing else. Incapable of thinking even one step ahead; likewise the people who chose her to lead them. Unless she was put there by the Foes of the Earth, that is...
The most maddening experience anyone can have is to persuade people to adopt a sound course of action which they have not understood, and here is someone championing a valid issue who is only adept at persuading people to elect her party's worst enemies. Old-fashioned Marxists would have called her MAGA's "objective ally".
ThankYou.
Fine critique of Stein.
Locally, this year in Maine CD2 has presented some challenges to Vote Blue No Matter Who ... but as you say, thinking of the big picture and next steps is essential.
In ME she is a good ranked choice "patsy".
It has been said that "voting is but one note in the symphony of democracy". The conversations all of us have about what's important and how we can share power are part of that symphony. I can appreciate some of the ideas Jill Stein is fighting for. There is a time for dialog and a time to vote in our real world system of elections. Perhaps Jill Stein could find the wisdom to endorse Harris/Walz as the best way to serve the interests of her supporters, just as some Republicans are coming out for Harris. That would be a powerful and classy move with an eye to the future.
Lin- Did you vote today? The 4 of us went to our town Hall and voted "absentee" in person.
There are 5 Presidential candidates and because of ranked choice voting I voted for 3 on the ballot and then wrote myself in just to make sure Trump doesn't get any of the ranked choice votes from me. :)
Last week - and have the sticker to prove it.
Maine leads in voter access: RCV, same day registration, protecting the voting rights of the incarcerated. DIRIGO ("...is the state motto of Maine, having once been the only state to hold its elections in September.")
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_Maine
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/06/11/in-just-two-states-all-prisoners-can-vote-here-s-why-few-do
https://stateline.org/2023/09/26/incarcerated-people-partner-with-state-officials-to-encourage-voter-turnout-in-maine-prisons/
I'm sure it's an uphill battle for those who are trying to teach critical thinking skills. Many students come from homes that emphasize religion, which encourages followers not to think, and beliefs or fears that focus on facts if they're distasteful is threatening to the whole structure. Many people tend to believe what they want to be true, instead actually accepting what is true. If one's parents function like this, it's much harder to develop critical thinking skills.
"critical thinking skills" Wellll, you have to get up to thinking before you train for critical thinking. Right? Try a reflexive move to critically think about thinking. Be sure to add in some critical thinking about who the "I" is that has the needed agency to do this so called thinking. I'll suggest that if originality has anything to do with thinking then there isn't much if any of it going on. Ask any number of people what is it to think and see if any are thinking for themselves or even thinking.
We are always looking for our own tribe. Some of this is down to the big lonely.
Kathy, the challenge for teachers is that so many are hobbled by curricula that are about teaching specific things and how to get the "right" answer. Teachers need to learn clever ways to get around this teaching approach by subtlely adding critical thinking questions when possible to every single lesson, using why and how questions as well as what if, what could? This works even in math if that math is being related to real life situations. Our teachers' colleges could develop this into specific teaching strategies that can be used even in districts that specifically don't want children taught to think critically, say in Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, and some of the other former confederate states and the confederate wannabee states. That's not to say that there aren't other states that want only the "right" answer, but that there is a mass of them in the areas I mentioned. Confronting the "Big Lie" does not work well, but undermining it with care and planning can do it. Maybe even asking Trump why he likes to lie so often or what he gets from lying so often. A trusted reporter could do that. Trump will try to turn it on the questioner, but that person could laugh and say, "there you go again, lying right in front of all these people." What I know is that I have not heard the word lie more than once or twice in a major media report in the 9+ years since Trump's escalator ride and that has let a lot of people think what Republicans are saying are not lies when they are.
Yes. It's called teaching with intentionality. If I do -------, then this will happen. Problem solving works best when done with present moment intention.