An Olive Branch

"Corky Scott" wrote in message
...
Can you give me an example of what you mean by critical thinking?

Critical thinking would allow someone, for example, to read a statement like
"But when schools simply teach you that you have to memorize facts, but
don't
need to know how to put facts together to create new knowledge and insights,
there's no real education going on", and understand by implication what the
author means by "critical thinking", from the "compare and contrast"
construction of the statement.

Well like it or not, there are some things kids just have to memorize.

I never said there weren't. The problem is when education is *limited to*
memorization.

[...]
Bush is a great believer in accountability in schools.

How did we turn this back into a thread about Bush? I don't particularly
agree with his methods, but the truth is that schools have been screwed up
for a LONG time since before Bush was around to help. "No child left
behind" is simply the natural progression for what's already been going on
for decades.

But in any case, just talking about the tests: it's harder, but by no means
impossible, to create tests that test critical thinking rather than rote
memorization. The real question is just how much effort educators want to
put into it.

Pete