# Teach Critical Thinking in Public Schools?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-critical-thinking-in-public-schools/926207>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 22, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-critical-thinking-in-public-schools/926207 "2020-11-22T19:19:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 37

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**Author:** ![ZosterSandstorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ZosterSandstorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZosterSandstorm)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2020, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-critical-thinking-in-public-schools/926207/37 "2020-11-23T17:33:28Z")

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The timeline for ideas going from “universally considered crazy” to “mainstream leftist orthodoxy” is something like:

Step 1: “Nobody actually believes that, stop making up caricatures of our positions.”  
Step 2: “The people who believe that are a small fringe and you’re unfairly generalizing the whole left by attributing their opinions to all of us.”  
Step 3: “I don’t personally believe that so you can’t make me defend it.”  
Step 4: “Our candidates in swing states now endorse that as part of our platform, and any decent person must follow suit or be a racist.”  
Step 5: “We are teaching that in schools and your children will fail if they don’t regurgitate it back.”

“2 + 2 = 4 is racist” is somewhere between step 2 and step 3 right now It will be interesting to check back in on this thread and others in about five years and see where we are.

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