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Grow Some Labia's avatar

Kids not being taught how to think is nothing new. When I was in college in the Reagan '80s I never forgot a Doonesbury Sunday cartoon in which a college professor was trying to get his students to think about political issues and challenge him.

https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1985/01/27/

Back then, students were mostly interested in getting good grades so they could get a good, high-paying job. They weren't much interested in critical thought. I was, and since I was going into telecommunications and journallism, I very much enjoyed debating professors and students. I came home my first year and became a giant arrogant, self-impressed pain in the ass to my mother with my new-found skills :)

But at least I was taught to think, which I realized I hadn't been in high school. Or maybe I was but I didn't pay enough attention.

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Peaceful Dave's avatar

There are things best memorized and things we look up in reference books or now look up on the internet. I have no need to memorize unit conversion formulas when I have the Convert Pad app on my phone, but those formulas are test questions for high school students. Time could be better spent understanding the why and how than memorizing what when it is easy to look up.

If you use something all the time you memorize it without trying.

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