Prelude

"The sign said Fine for parking - so I parked there because it was fine."

I had a wonderful conversation last night with my sister, Wisdom. She and I were talking about the latest in her wonderful teaching adventures at high school. Her school like many schools in big Canadian cities has changed in composition over the last 10 years. And many of the teachers at the schools have not changed their prejudices and biases. She often encounters teachers in the teacher's lounge saying things like,

"Why bother teaching students to write an essay. They can't do it, it's too difficult for them and they're only going to work in laboring jobs anyway."

Wisdom is often frustrated by the education system and rants about how many of her older white colleagues are confronted by their own prejudices when they stand in front of a class filled with brown and black bodies. This, she says is the slippery slope logic that many teachers employ.

I wanted to pursue this particular aspect of our conversation but it turned down a road I wasn't expecting and well, I really enjoy tangents.

She started to tell me how she was so shocked and dismayed by what her students were saying in class that she decided to dump the standard English curriculum and teach them something else.

Wisdom is often shocked and dismayed by what her students say, the actions of the principal, other teachers, the government, you name it. Shock and dismay comes, in part, because she still holds to a ridiculous ideal that the world can be a better place. When I remind her of this, she blames me for all her idealistic notions because I was her role model when she went to university. As most undergrads, I ditched classes for protests and writing articles about equity and equality for the university political rags, thinking that I could educate people out of the misfortune of their prejudices. Unfortunately the years (mainly grad school) have made me jaded and bitter, or as I believe, more realistic.

Her new curriculum was on critical thinking. At the start she asked her students what they thought critical thinking entailed, they said it was about detecting bias. Many of her teen-aged students also believed that you couldn't trust the media, politicians, or news organizations to present the truth. Nor for that matter history. History was written by the winners and was therefore just propaganda. As a result they dismissed anything that was riddled with bias. When I told her I didn't differ much, that I didn't want to have to read 10 different news sources just to figure out what happened and so I didn't. She was, of course, shocked and dismayed.

So were many of my friends when I didn't know that 1. Tiger Woods had cheated on his wife. 2. Michael Jackson died. and 3. Brittany Spears had a baby or maybe it was two. How any of this is news is beyond me.

Her response, "Critical thinking is about the effort. There is no excuse for laziness. Just because you may have to spend a little more time reading and evaluating the story doesn't mean it isn't worth reading. Of course history has bias but part of the study of history is to evaluate the social and political context of the writer's story. Just because it's a story doesn't make it any less informative."

Ugh, I know of course she's right. But she's the YOUNGER sister. This was a pattern we have lived with for over 30 years.

She continued, "Besides critical thinking is more than just the detection of bias. It is more about determining meaning in an individual's argument or statement by evaluating the logic and considering the evidence. This is the problem with the education system, instead of teaching students critical thinking skills, we spend our days reading aloud to them from Shakespeare, like they're still three. I think that teachers can't teach critical thinking because they themselves don't understand it. With the increased role of the media and internet in our lives, critical thought as it really is, has died. The death of logical fallacy has become usurped by the detection of bias. "

Now you know why I named her Wisdom.

And then I started thinking about science and the death of critical thinking in the universities and in the process of doing fast and dirty science. And she's right. Really, it's no different for us.

But unfortunately, readers, you will have to wait for that connection between our conversation and my slow science tirade until next time. I have to return to work on that manuscript!

*****

Addendum 1:

Every year HippieHusband and I make the dreaded border run to renew our visas. This time they fingerprinted (all 10 fingers) us and took photos. All I can say is that if the government was going to go to all that trouble to fingerprint me, they should have the courtesy to at least let me try out for the CIA. Yes, I know, I'm obsessed with all that Alias.

*****

Addendum 2:

The job side is looking good. Two possibilities look promising!!

****

Next time - how fast science has meant the death of critical thinking