So this is where this thread ended up! I was searching in the older sections. It really wouldn't have occurred to me to look in this section. I had to search. Incidentally, it's probably about time we started breaking this thread down into some less lengthy side threads. I'll let your interest decid...

They should be able to evaluate theories, be they literary, scientific, philosophical or historical to the point where they can differentiate between consistent theories and inconsistent theories. Is that really all we want public education to achieve? How long does it take to teach a person to loo...

Got it. Expensive little bugger.

But the question that we ought to ask when ever we talk about "teaching people how to think" is "how to think about what?" More and more I'm finding all this talk about "critical thinking skills" to be either too abstract to serve as a basis for any practical program o...

Just a quick thought but isn't a lot of what people are talking about when they talk of life skills covered by Home Economics? I know when I did it it covered things like diet, budgeting, banking, consumer rights, social problems, basic biology etc.

But surely an education should be seven parts teaching people how to think to three parts teaching people what to do? Isn't that what democracy demands? Where is the benefit in allowing people the opportunity to elect governments to deal with problems like global warming if they are completely scien...

[quote]But I wonder, with regard to Vatican II changes, why isn't the current generation attracted to the Church? Wasn't that part of the point of Vatican II

Excellent. I'm sorry I missed this. These are some of the questions I've always wanted to see Chomsky answer.

Personally, I blame the Turks. If they hadn't killed all those Armenians, we wouldn't be in this situation. Awfully inconsiderate of them.

Apologies for the long delay in replying Mad. The fact is that I was unsure just what to suggest. One problem came from the fact that the popular readable books tend to limit their focus to the sensational, while the more academic works tend to travel close to boring at times. So here are a few sugg...