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Let's talk about 101

coberst

Critical Thinker
Joined
Jul 17, 2006
Messages
415
Let’s talk about 101

Most colleges have a numbering system identifying the courses being taught. In the college catalogue you are apt to find that your freshman courses are Physics 101, Chemistry 101, Literature 101, Geography 101, etc. The introductory course to a particular domain of knowledge is likely to be numbered 101. This has led to the common usage of 101 as meaning an introductory course.

If elementary schools followed this format, which they do not, you would see first graders taking Reading 101, Writing 101, and Arithmetic 101.

Only recently have our (US) educational institutions come to the realization that teaching youngsters what to think is necessary but not sufficient. The educational community has decided that our schools and colleges must begin to teach young people HOW to think. Our schools and colleges must begin teaching Reasoning 101.

Twelve years after graduating with an engineering degree I took a night course, Logic 101 (i.e. Reasoning 101), from the physics department of a local college. I was amazed to discover that I had no knowledge about this fundamental human capacity of reasoning before I took this course. I pondered the unbelievable fact that after 16 years of education I had no comprehension of the science of reasoning. I recognized at that moment that my educational system had seriously short-changed me.

That this serious omission is still universal was once again brought to my attention recently when I posted this response to a fellow forum member: “Reading is fundamental. Writing is fundamental. CT (Critical Thinking) is fundamental. These fundamental elements of human knowledge appear constantly and in all matters because of their fundamental nature.” With the following reply: “…sleeping is even more fundamental than all of those... I don't think everyone needs to study sleeping - practice seems good enough.”
 
When I saw this was a Coberst thread, I hoped it would be yet another essay about the need to teach critical thinking. I dreamed it would be yet another essay about the need to teach critical thinking. I needed it to be yet another essay about the need to teach critical thinking. But then I opened the thread and there it was: yet another essay about the need to teach critical thinking.

Thank you, Coberst. Thank you for hammering away at your one pet issue so hard and for so long that it has become to me like the air - ever present and ever necessary for my very survival. Or, possibly, like water in that I feel like I'm drowning in it.
 
Coberst, you may want to look up the idiom "preaching to the choir."
 
Only recently have our (US) educational institutions come to the realization that teaching youngsters what to think is necessary but not sufficient. The educational community has decided that our schools and colleges must begin to teach young people HOW to think. Our schools and colleges must begin teaching Reasoning 101.
Yeah, right. You put kids through an educational system that stresses rote-learning and passing tests and doing exactly as they are told. Then you discover that, surprise, surprise they can't think for themselves and never question what they are told. So the solution is that we teach them that too. And they'd better think for themselves and question stuff in exactly the way we tell them to if they want good grades...
 
More important, though, is that no one has answered me yet.
To wit, when discussing pies, can I include a Boston Cream(Creme) Pie, in all fairness. I mean, it's called a "pie" on the menu, and it's quite tasty, but it's really just your basic cake and custard and chocolate filling.

This troubles me because at the current CTRP (Coberst Thread Rate Progression) of 1 new thread: 1.5 days, I think we have to be concerned that when the topic of pies comes up, if I'm allowed to totally derail the thread with something that's more cake than pie, it could set ontology back several centuries.

Pretty soon, people will be including Moon Pies. Then where would we be?

If I may quote Dr. Adequate, "Mmm, pie."

:spjimlad: :spjimlad:
 
Update: Actually there's a ruling on the Boston Cream Pie... We have decided that it's a pie (thanks to Randfan in another thread). Life can continue.
 
Let’s talk about 101

Most colleges have a numbering system identifying the courses being taught. In the college catalogue you are apt to find that your freshman courses are Physics 101, Chemistry 101, Literature 101, Geography 101, etc. The introductory course to a particular domain of knowledge is likely to be numbered 101. This has led to the common usage of 101 as meaning an introductory course.

If elementary schools followed this format, which they do not, you would see first graders taking Reading 101, Writing 101, and Arithmetic 101.

Only recently have our (US) educational institutions come to the realization that teaching youngsters what to think is necessary but not sufficient. The educational community has decided that our schools and colleges must begin to teach young people HOW to think. Our schools and colleges must begin teaching Reasoning 101.

Twelve years after graduating with an engineering degree I took a night course, Logic 101 (i.e. Reasoning 101), from the physics department of a local college. I was amazed to discover that I had no knowledge about this fundamental human capacity of reasoning before I took this course. I pondered the unbelievable fact that after 16 years of education I had no comprehension of the science of reasoning. I recognized at that moment that my educational system had seriously short-changed me.

That this serious omission is still universal was once again brought to my attention recently when I posted this response to a fellow forum member: “Reading is fundamental. Writing is fundamental. CT (Critical Thinking) is fundamental. These fundamental elements of human knowledge appear constantly and in all matters because of their fundamental nature.” With the following reply: “…sleeping is even more fundamental than all of those... I don't think everyone needs to study sleeping - practice seems good enough.”

Wow 101. I'm SO underwhelmed 101.
 
Let’s talk about 101

Most colleges have a numbering system identifying the courses being taught. In the college catalogue you are apt to find that your freshman courses are Physics 101, Chemistry 101, Literature 101, Geography 101, etc. The introductory course to a particular domain of knowledge is likely to be numbered 101. This has led to the common usage of 101 as meaning an introductory course.

If elementary schools followed this format, which they do not, you would see first graders taking Reading 101, Writing 101, and Arithmetic 101.

Only recently have our (US) educational institutions come to the realization that teaching youngsters what to think is necessary but not sufficient. The educational community has decided that our schools and colleges must begin to teach young people HOW to think. Our schools and colleges must begin teaching Reasoning 101.

Twelve years after graduating with an engineering degree I took a night course, Logic 101 (i.e. Reasoning 101), from the physics department of a local college. I was amazed to discover that I had no knowledge about this fundamental human capacity of reasoning before I took this course. I pondered the unbelievable fact that after 16 years of education I had no comprehension of the science of reasoning. I recognized at that moment that my educational system had seriously short-changed me.

That this serious omission is still universal was once again brought to my attention recently when I posted this response to a fellow forum member: “Reading is fundamental. Writing is fundamental. CT (Critical Thinking) is fundamental. These fundamental elements of human knowledge appear constantly and in all matters because of their fundamental nature.” With the following reply: “…sleeping is even more fundamental than all of those... I don't think everyone needs to study sleeping - practice seems good enough.”

but, Coberst keeps talking about the CT movement like it was something new. Schools have been talking about and more-or-less teaching it for about 15 years now (as much as 20+ in some locations) he/she is behind the times on this.
 
And I notice he still isn't talking about his trips to local schools as a guest speaker. I'm not sure who he expects to do all this teaching, but apparently it isn't him. He's just the flag-waver.
 
Update: Actually there's a ruling on the Boston Cream Pie... We have decided that it's a pie (thanks to Randfan in another thread). Life can continue.

Does this mean that the taste test is off? I was really looking forward to that...

Marc
 
I fail to see the point of all this. What exactly is your goal stating the obvious only in this weird floaty way? At least you didn't go on to some weird claim not following from that. What you say actually stays reasonable, if obvious, to the very end.

That said, I still disagree with critical thinking being as fundamental as reading and writing. I'd call it more fundamental. Reading and writing have the potential to be replaced in the future, and there'd be no reason to learn outdated skills should that happen (in the same way that learning how to hunt a deer isn't needed today). Logical thinking very likely will be a valuable skill until our species vanishes.

But anyway, what is your goal again? Are you just experimenting randomly in some weird psychological experiment?
 
Update: Actually there's a ruling on the Boston Cream Pie... We have decided that it's a pie (thanks to Randfan in another thread). Life can continue.
:D Well that made my day.

Now, I guess I should let you all know that flan isn't a food and neither is rice pudding or tapioca.

Carry on.
 
I fail to see the point of all this. What exactly is your goal stating the obvious only in this weird floaty way? At least you didn't go on to some weird claim not following from that. What you say actually stays reasonable, if obvious, to the very end.

That said, I still disagree with critical thinking being as fundamental as reading and writing. I'd call it more fundamental. Reading and writing have the potential to be replaced in the future, and there'd be no reason to learn outdated skills should that happen (in the same way that learning how to hunt a deer isn't needed today). Logical thinking very likely will be a valuable skill until our species vanishes.

But anyway, what is your goal again? Are you just experimenting randomly in some weird psychological experiment?



In the dungeon shortly before drinking from the hemlock cup Socrates spoke to his followers. He spoke about the accusations against him at the trial. He said that the sworn indictment against him was “Socrates is guilty of needless curiosity and meddling interference, inquiring into things beneath Earth and in the Sky…” Socrates further adds that he is accused of teaching the people of Athens, to which Socrates vehemently denies that he is a teacher. He points out that in matters of wisdom he has only a small piece of that territory; the wisdom that he does have is the wisdom not to think he knows what he does not know. Socrates conjectures that he has the wisdom to recognize the boundary of his present knowledge and to search for that knowledge that he does not have. “So it seems at any rate I am wiser in this one small respect: I do not think I know what I do not.”
 
In the dungeon shortly before drinking from the hemlock cup Socrates spoke to his followers. He spoke about the accusations against him at the trial. He said that the sworn indictment against him was “Socrates is guilty of needless curiosity and meddling interference, inquiring into things beneath Earth and in the Sky…” Socrates further adds that he is accused of teaching the people of Athens, to which Socrates vehemently denies that he is a teacher. He points out that in matters of wisdom he has only a small piece of that territory; the wisdom that he does have is the wisdom not to think he knows what he does not know. Socrates conjectures that he has the wisdom to recognize the boundary of his present knowledge and to search for that knowledge that he does not have. “So it seems at any rate I am wiser in this one small respect: I do not think I know what I do not.”

So, this is just another isolated book report without relevance?

Thought so.
 
In the dungeon shortly before drinking from the hemlock cup Socrates spoke to his followers. He spoke about the accusations against him at the trial. He said that the sworn indictment against him was “Socrates is guilty of needless curiosity and meddling interference, inquiring into things beneath Earth and in the Sky…” Socrates further adds that he is accused of teaching the people of Athens, to which Socrates vehemently denies that he is a teacher. He points out that in matters of wisdom he has only a small piece of that territory; the wisdom that he does have is the wisdom not to think he knows what he does not know. Socrates conjectures that he has the wisdom to recognize the boundary of his present knowledge and to search for that knowledge that he does not have. “So it seems at any rate I am wiser in this one small respect: I do not think I know what I do not.”
Wow! :jaw-dropp

I didn't think you could come across as any more pretentiously self-absorbed, but, damn, you just did.

That little missive apparently had no connection to the post you seem to be responding to. As far as I can tell you just chose to show off by quoting Socrates. If there was any connection it's totally unobvious, and you completely failed to explain it.
 
Who is the judge? I am the judge for me and you are the judge for you. One cannot hide from this truth and it is a no brainier that each of us is well advised to become as proficient in this matter as possible.

The Catch-22 is that the person who has little learning regarding this matter is the person most in need of self-study of this subject. In other words, the person with the least ability in making good judgments is the person who will make the judgment as to whether to spend the effort and time in acquiring the knowledge required to make good judgments.

Each of us makes many judgments every day. Each judgment made has some effect on our life. There are bad judgments, good judgments, and better judgments. The more ‘better judgments’ we make in our life the better our life will be, generally speaking.
 
More important, though, is that no one has answered me yet.
To wit, when discussing pies, can I include a Boston Cream(Creme) Pie, in all fairness. I mean, it's called a "pie" on the menu, and it's quite tasty, but it's really just your basic cake and custard and chocolate filling.



:spjimlad: :spjimlad:

that is a question I've often wondered about myself but then decided it didn't really matter to me what it was called, as long as I got to eat it :D and thanks to you, I now crave some Boston Creme PIE :mad:
 

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