So when I was in middle or high school (I don't remember, it was a long time ago) there was a whole section in my English class on writing a research paper, and part of it was Evaluating Sources.https://twitter.com/JoeFeagin/status/1051662363399806976 …
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How to identify primary vs secondary sources, how to identify bias in sources, how to identify reliable sources based on bias and by cross reference to a variety of other sources, etc etc. Basically a unit in "Thinking Critically About Media"
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We didn't even really HAVE the internet in those days - our teachers were trying to help us avoid the National Enquirer et al - shitty *printed* sources.
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In I think it was 8th grade we did a similar thing on science - spotting flaws in experiment design, trying to spot bad hypotheses, talking about what makes a journal reputable. That was part of doing a science fair project.
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I can't help but think that cutting out units like these in favor of whatever standardized tests are testing is a terrible idea in the age of the internet. Critical thinking about what you read is a critical skill.
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But then given I have friends my age who fall for the "microwaves are dangerous because they hear things by exciting the molecules" bullshit, I think my schools might have been unusual even then.
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(pro tip: that's how EVERYTHING heats things)
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Anyway I also think that's probably one reason why my mother married an upper middle class English professor. So I could go to those kinds of schools, and not working class southern schools.
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Replying to @NeolithicSheep
Teaching first-year uni kids how to think critically here in Ireland is frustrating. They were taught that history was about how many facts you can memorize and regurgitate.
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But I remember that when I was in school, the only person who even got close to teaching me to think critically was my grade 11 social studies teacher. Even then, I never really learned how to assess a primary source until university.
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Replying to @AdmiralHip
My social studies teachers grades 9-12 were useless and undoubtedly really wished that my English and science teachers had not had units on critical thinking
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Replying to @NeolithicSheep
I wish we had that stuff in science. My science teachers were often very wrong on things and refused to let us question them.
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