An article recently appeared on Sci-Am that disrobed one of the more popular internet memes as completely wrong. I mean literally no part of the original meme is at all correct. And, sadly, though I have a healthy skeptic-tendon, I must admit that I swallowed it.
Which got me to thinking (again), should our schools teach bullshit? That is, not disseminate invalid information, but require courses in recognizing nonsense. I am thinking several years, from about grades 5 to 8 or 9, of studying misinformation and fiction, so that young people could become adept at detecting hyperbole and deception.
Seems like it would be a good thing. But, what about Ronco and Ginsu Knives and QVC? Would a populace well-armed in skepticism lead to a weaker economy? Would the answer for that be to restore shop and home ec curricula, which I have heard has been sorely neglected?
Interesting. I’d heard the meme, but hadn’t bothered to investigate it one way or the other. Nevertheless, color me completely unsurprised that it’s false.
Most states have curricula that emphasize critical thinking skills already.
The problem is that people get out of school and then start watching bullshit-fueled TV all day, and they lose their critical thinking skills (if they ever had them). That’s why Trump won: he just translated TV bullshit to political bullshit, and there were just barely enough suckers in just the right states to give him the electoral vote.
Basically, suckers believe Trump for the same reason they believe the NASA-pen myth: they want to think it’s true because it validates them in some way, and they’re too lazy to find the real truth on their own, when the bullshit gets so easily served to them as they sit on their lazy asses in front of the TV (or Facebook).
“Would a populace well-armed in skepticism lead to a weaker economy?”
Well, you can’t get them all. But as they say also, if you think education is costly try ignorance.
But yeah, regarding the subject, besides dabbling on science fiction, my educational background is also pulling me to someday develop a course about finding, identifying bull, and then finding good sources of information.
The good news is that a lot of good ideas and sources for critical thinking are available, like Oxford University’s Critical Reasoning for Beginners
And one guy I also like to check is science writer Peter Hadfield, ACA potholer54 on the internet:
This is very important, and it deals to what guizot was referring to, it is not only the basics on critical thinking that need to be taught, there is a need to teach also that we are not only what we eat, but we are also what we use as our sources of information.
The problem is that most people forget everything they learn in school. I know there is a meme going around that if only we educated people properly, they wouldn’t do stupid things like vote for Trump, but that’s not the way it works in the real world.
Hunh, my housemate and I were just discussing this tonight, with the conclusion that some sort of basic course on critical thinking would be of great use (also one on the elements of investment and retirement savings).
My thinking is along the lines of more immersive than “a course”. Like, years of it, so that it becomes reflexive rather than something like algebra that you struggle to pull up “how do I do this again?”
But then, I view ideal education as teaching kids how to learn, rather than shoving information into their heads.
A biology professor told us that some of what he was teaching us would likely one day be shown to be incorrect. He stressed he wanted to teach us how rather than what to think.
The whole zero-g pen story has been debunked for a long time. It’s probably symptomatic of something that the OP is only just now hearing of the debunking. Of what, though, I’m not sure.
Doesn’t matter. They’ll copy/paste wikipedia anyway. You could give them an assignment on critical thinking and not taking everything at face value (much less shit you find on the internet) and it would begin : “Critical thinking was described by Richard Paul as a movement in two waves (1994)”
While the NASA pen meme is fairly minor in the grand scheme of bullshit, it touches on a couple of major myth narratives that have deep underpinning:
[ul]
[li]America is number one! Woo Hoo! We can’t let those Russkies beat us![/li][li]Our government is always in every way at all times stupid and wasteful.[/li][/ul]
So, how would you teach around the fact that in learning history, and in our day-to-day lives, we are bombarded with myth narratives 24/7?
Do we start by telling children in school that their parents lied to them about Santa Claus (do we bring up religion?)?
So, “critical thinking” as a skill can only go so far. Who do we deem as the gatekeepers to truth and myth (see what’s happening with our current President)?
Do said curricula actually teach critical thinking skills and focus on how to recognize bullshit, or are you citing courses that in general should demand critical thinking skills?
We generate a lot of graduates who succeed in various endeavors, but who readily buy into woo and politically-based nonsense.
Just to address the end question (assuming it’s not entirely sarcastic).
No. When people know how to buy good products and services, and avoid bad ones, since they still need or want those things, they will still spend money to get them, and the economy will be fine. In other words, there is zero reason to WANT people to be lousy at observation and reasoning.
I’ve owned and used a set of Ginsu knives for about 20 years now. They’re not bullshit, they have performed as advertised. Just wanted to set the record straight.
When teachers teach BS it causes long term damage. People seem to think: “If a teacher said it, it must be true!”
I, like many others my age, was told by my teacher, that the water in the toilet spins the way that it does because we are on the northern hemisphere (coriolis effect).
Any long time fan of the Dope can tell you this simply isn’t true.
This subject came up with me and some bar mates. And even though I tried to explain the science to them why this isn’t true, they wouldn’t believe me. Their main counter point being: “That’s what their teachers taught them.” :rolleyes:
Seconded - I’ve been aware of this one for years, and have shown it to a number of people when the subject came up.
But I don’t see how an increase in critical thinking by the populace would keep this sort of thing from being believed. I’ve seen versions of the story that are completely plausible and sound reasonable. It just so happens that it was historically false - I don’t see how one would come to that conclusion through inferences allowed by critical thinking.
And frankly, there’s not a lot of reason for a person outside the aerospace industry to even suspect the story was false (apart from the “America - fuck yeah!” aggrandizement). I’m a spaceflight geek, so I know that having little bits of pencil tip floating around inside a capsule is a bad idea. But without that background I might not have thought to investigate this story further when I first encountered it.
A high-school course in Recognizing Bullshit would be of immense value, both to individuals and to society at large. I’d suggest that the curriculum consist of reading and discussing these two books:
[ul]
[li]Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, 2009 or 2015 editions[/li][li]Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely, 2010[/li][/ul]
I have no connection whatsoever with any of these three authors; I’m suggesting their books because the books are compulsively readable (always a plus with teenagers) and well-vetted for accuracy and relevance.
Using these two books would prevent the inevitable arguments over the content of the course-curriculum—arguments that would delay implementation of such a course for, possibly, years.
There could always be a “Recognizing Bullshit II” to cover additional topics. But these two books are a quick-read introduction to the facts about the human mind that so often lead us to believe stupid stuff (such as the pen story).