Critical Thinking 11/27/06

Critical thinking is not a part of the curriculum here I am told, and though I have not been to enough schools to report on teaching first hand, I trust what I have heard because I see it play itself out.Teachers ask a question and students respond as if reciting a catechism. You answer the question asked, nothing beyond. When you ask someone on the street if he knows how to get to Roma restaurant, for instance, he will likely reply, "yes", and it is not until you ask,"how do you get to Roma restaurant?" that you will get anything resembling directions. Sometimes, we joke, you have to ask the same question in six or seven different ways.

Thinking creatively, outside of the box, is not valued. When we asked kids at a Sunday afternoon HIV program to play with us on camera by acting like different kinds of animals, they simply mimicked one another. It did not matter that the first child was asked to be an elephant the second child, who was asked to be a grass hopper, would act just like the first. I can assume that it stems from a number of causes, but one of them I am sure is colonialism. Under British rule, it was advantageous for the white people in power to create an educational system based on call and response, recitation, and wrote memory. Critical thinking would lead to questioning authority, and that could shake the empire's tight grip. The problem arises when the satellite colony gains its freedom.The children who were taught not to question become leaders, businessmen, and farmers who are not skilled at problem solving. They know what to answer when asked, but are not sure what to ask on their own.