Learn how to think, not what to think

The history of modern schools, why critical thinking was never the plan and what is the way forward?

“Are we raising future generations incapable of critical thinking. We need to see the wonder of curiosity in our children’s eyes and get out of our children’s way.”– A. Drake

WHY DOES CRITICAL THINKING MATTER

Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate evidence or logic to make accurate inferences about other people, the world, and ourselves. It’s important for actually learning things rather than getting good grades.

Critical thinking allows us to evaluate a claim. To evaluate evidence vs non evidence. With questions like – How exactly do we know that? what is the evidence for it, how can we logically deduce that? But let’s be honest – questions such as these would get annoying for teachers and would side track a class. (from within the context of the current education model)

But according to studies on learning, if we trained ourselves to question and demand evidence throughout our learning process not only would we learn and retain information better, but many new ideas would be discovered in the process. Eventually, at some point along the way somebody is likely to look into things that no one had ever looked at before. This is where innovation, creativity and original thought comes in. And as a matter of personal growth this would make us wiser, and more self determining in our thoughts and behaviours.

So why then do we structure schools the way we do?

“CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY OR RISK HAVING IT CREATED FOR YOU.” – GHANDI

If we continue to pride ourselves on being an enlightened society, we must rise to the occasion and be enlightened thinkers who continue blazing the trail for human advancement. The future is within each and every one of us and the choices we make collectively and individually. Those collective choices are the very backbone of what defines our culture and our vision for the future. Don’t let others make decisions for you. Instead of following, think for yourself.

The enlightenment, equality of the sexes, the abolition of slavery, free speech, freedom of religion, the end of apartheid – none of these would exist without critical thinking.

Critical thinking is the primary key in unlocking human potential. When people don’t have the ability to question the status quo, totalitarian nations are allowed to exist, and times like the dark ages can swallow us again.

Carl Jung once stated “knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.” Thus, a fact is something that can be proven true or false. Emotions, judgements, interpretations, no matter how often or in what quantities they are added, do not alter fact. Like truth, it requires nothing to be added or removed. It stands on its own and is unalterable.

Fact that has been manipulated in order to evoke emotion, sway judgement, or suggest behaviour, is no longer fact. It has become something else. And that something usually has a purpose, an agenda, a narrative to perpetuate. And regardless of what that purpose is, it’s dangerous.

Swaying a narrative can control behaviour in order to gain and maintain power. It does this by not only controlling the flow of information, but through what information is provided and also how it is provided.

HOW IS THE MODERN SCHOOL SYSTEM DESTROYING OUR THINKING SKILLS?

The traditional school system can hinder critical thinking by prioritising memorisation and standardised testing over active analysis and independent thought. This can lead to students becoming passive recipients of information rather than active participants in their learning. Factors like large class sizes, a focus on rote learning, and a lack of opportunities for debate and diverse perspectives further contribute to this issue.

So if this is the effect, why do we have this system of schooling?

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN SCHOOL SYSTEM

To understand we need to look at the Public School Origin Story.

In terms of biological history, schools are a very recent human invention. For hundreds of thousands of years, people lived in hunter-gatherer societies, and children learned what was important to know from playing together and, when they were old enough, exploring the world around them on their own. Adults in these societies allowed children almost unlimited freedom to both play and explore, recognizing that these are children’s natural ways of learning. This way of life was skill- and knowledge-intensive, but not labor-intensive.

To sustain a hunter-gatherer type of living, everyone in the community had to acquire vast knowledge about plants and animals on which they depended for survival and the landscapes where everything lived. They also had to develop great skill in fashioning and using tools needed for their way of life, and they had to take initiative and be creative in finding edible or medicinal plants or tracking game.

However, they didn’t have to work long hours, and the work they did was an exciting and expected part of life. Anthropologists studying current hunter-gatherer groups have reported that these groups don’t distinguish between work and play — all life is understood as play.

Agriculture developed at least 10,000 years ago in some parts of the world, setting in motion a fundamental change in people’s ways of living.

Agriculture allowed people to produce more food, which allowed them to have more children. Agriculture also allowed (or forced, depending on your viewpoint) people to live in permanent dwellings where their crops were planted, rather than move as nomads. And permanent residence allowed settled people to accumulate property.

The cost of these changes was a new focus on labor, not knowledge. Hunter-gatherers harvested what nature provided around them, while farmers had to plow their fields, plant and cultivate their crops, and tend their flocks. That meant long hours of relatively unskilled, repetitive labor, a lot of which could be done by children, even relatively young children. And with larger families, it was even more important for children to tend the fields so they could help feed their younger siblings; those who didn’t work the fields stayed at home to help care for those siblings. Children’s lives slowly changed from self-determined and in free pursuit of their own interests to a ready-made workforce putting in long and hard hours serving the rest of their family.

The accumulation of material wealth, especially in the form of property, also created clear status differences between members of society. People who didn’t own land became dependent on those who did. Landowners found they could increase their own wealth by getting people to work for them, leading to institutionalised slavery and indentured servitude, including young children.

For most of human history you grew up to do whatever your parents did, learning how to survive. And then that’s what you did for the rest of your life till your own kids came along and the process was repeated.

Then public schools changed things to learning the same things which were unrelated to your life with kids who were largely the same age – but for what purpose?

By many measures this public school system we have today is failing . Very few people are satisfied about how the school system is going.

A shocking amount of what we do wrong in our schools today began 1000’s of years ago.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCHOOLS

Getting up early came from ancient Egyptian schools wanting to avoid the heat of the day.

Small desks for students with large desks for teachers, politics, history reading, arts and maths. Education was moulded by authorities. Priests and government officials were the teachers.

Hand made wooden templates were written on and copied from writing on the walls.

Punishments for misbehaviour included penning lines, beatings with a stick and time in a stock.

The purpose of education was to preserve a framework of society envisioned by the ruling elite of the time.

SOCRATIC SCHOOL 470-399 BC

The idea of modern School is that it has a liberal arts philosophy.

But in reality it has two distinct messages:

1. That education is good in itself. – You should seek to be educated because education makes you a better, wiser, more thoughtful person.
2. That getting an education is important because it helps you get a better career, you should do everything necessary while you’re at college to position yourself for a good, stable career”

Athenian schools started with the purpose of the first message. It’s often what we think school is, or rather what it should be….Learning to think for ourselves.

The Socratic method was developed by the Greek philosopher Socrates. It is a form of cooperative dialogue that uses a series of questions to explore underlying beliefs and ideas.

It encourages critical thinking by prompting individuals to examine their own assumptions and to consider different perspectives. This method, also known as Socratic questioning, is used in various contexts, including education and counselling, to promote deeper understanding and intellectual growth.

The socratic method of teaching. “We use the socratic method here. I’ll ask you a question and you answer it. Why don’t I just give you a lecture, because we don’t do that here.”  Through this method of Questioning, answering, questioning and answering. We seek to develop in you the ability to analyse an advanced, complex, collection of facts that constitute the advanced relationships between members within a society. At times you will feel you have found the correct answer. I assure you this is a total delusion. You will never find the correct absolute and final answer. Because there will always be another question.” – The paper chase 1973.

Unfortunately Socrates died a martyr, defending his right to question societal norms.

A DEPARTURE FROM THE SOCRATIC METHOD

What was life like before the Industrial Revolution for kids?

Before the Industrial Revolution, many people in Britain lived on farms. This was where they looked after animals and grew their own food. The fastest way to get anywhere was by horse and cart and most people lived in small villages. Crafts, such as making pots and cloth, were completed by hand. The whole family worked together to make what they needed for daily life. They traded for items they could not make themselves. A farmer may trade corn with the blacksmith for horse-shoes or nails.

Children usually learned about the adult world by doing things the way their parents did. Children were expected to help with a share of the family’s work. Boys helped their fathers and girls did chores at home.

With the rise of feudalism in the Middle Ages, society became steeply hierarchical. A few kings and lords reigned from the top, and the multitude of serfs served them in every respect from the bottom. Education changed along with societal structure. Gone was carefree play. Children were expected to learn obedience, suppression of their own will, and reverence for their “lords and masters.” Any show of rebellious spirit could lead to crushing punishment, including death.

But then the seeds were planted for big government education at around 1630 that wanted to purify the community and reflect their beliefs. Subjection to authority and religion. They wanted people to be literate. To read the bible and spread puritan traditions.

School became compulsory around 1642 and children were forced to read. The State would seize children and put them in other homes so they could ensure they were taught properly. Lords encouraged folk to keep a vigilant eye over their neighbours. ‘It takes a village’ vs ‘the crucible.’

FREDERICK WILLIAM I OF PRUSSIA

Frederick mandated the first compulsory education in 1717 for all children in state schools. This laid the groundwork for the modern school system.

His approach was strict and militaristic. The purpose was to turn out very patriotic, loyal, obedient soldiers. He treated his kingdom as a schoolroom and like a zealous schoolmaster flogged his naughty subjects unmercifully.

The teachers themselves were soldiers. His system included elements that influenced modern education, such as teacher training, curriculum development, and national testing.  All teachers had to be examined and certified by the state. Bureaucracy monitored all schools.
Ridged, uncreative, militarised style of education came straight from a military model where the goal was to pump out unquestioning people, loyally serving the state.

COLONIAL REVOLUTION 1765-1783

In the colonial revolution schooling happened at home. There were community schools but it was specifically for poor people. Mostly education was handled voluntarily by free people prior to the Industrial Revolution. Children learnt the basics from their parents or other adults and then by the time they were teenagers they would be working on the farm or taking up some other trade apprenticeship.

HORACE MANN (1796-1859)

A prominent American educational reformer, known as the “Father of American Education” for his advocacy of public education. He championed the idea of common schools, emphasising equal access to education for all children.

He was a radical zealot and a fierce advocate for schools to mould citizens of intelligence and build strong moral character. He went to Prussia and liked its boot camp military structures. (Dividing students into grades by age, the lecture method, written exams and report cards, obedience and promptness.) and… what teaches a person to be more submissive than responding to the sound of a bell?  Divergent thinking wasn’t encouraged.

The person who created the school system had more in common with totalitarian facists than freedom loving citizens.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1760-1840

With the Industrial Revolution came a new bourgeoisie class that rose above the serfs. But while feudalism gradually died out, it didn’t necessarily improve the lives of most children. Business owners, just like landowners, needed hordes of unskilled labourers, and they learned they could increase their profit by extracting as much work from the people as possible with as little compensation as possible. The less compensation the better as this continued the cycle of continued working due to existing in a position of lack.

Labourers, which included young children, worked most of their waking hours in squalid conditions, seven days a week. But while children who were field labourers had access to sunshine, fresh air, and some opportunities to play, industrial labourers were forced into dark, crowded, and dirty factories. It wasn’t until the 19th century that England passed any laws limiting child labor.  However education remained limited to learning the task at hand and nothing more.

ECONOMIC CONTEXT OF INDUSTRIAL REFORMS

Prisons and schools were actually modelled after each other. The dominant thinking – environmentalism – whereby the environment shapes who we become.  Shape the environment – to improve the blank slate we start from.

Mimicking factory labour, schools even used to be called factory schools. Reformers relished efficiency and repetition. Training kids to sit at a desk, sit quietly, do their tasks, respond to a bell, raise their hands. Control every aspect of the environment, then they could completely control the development of the human mind.

The prisons and factories provided the perfect inspiration, they based their schools on the idea of complete control and repetitive labour.  The Benevolent goal of leading a good career.

Rote memorisation to learn facts, to get good grades to get a good job.

But what if the person wants to be an inventor, an entrepreneur, and what if their sole goal isn’t to make money?  What happens to our learning ability and critical thinking skills if our sole focus becomes getting good grades and earning money?

When the grade is the end goal – knowledge and learning itself is sacrificed. Knowledge and understanding doesn’t matter any more. It’s known that long term retention declines even one hour after memorisation, so how much of what you learned in school do you actually remember? Exactly.  This is why memorisation is a terrible learning technique.

Memorisation discourages critical thinking. We are taught rules and facts. When we memorise these things – they may or may not make any sense to us.

Alternatively if we engage our critical thinking…we think about why things happen, thinking around an idea allows us to understand it rather than accepting an idea blindly. But because the education system is built around factory efficiency there is just no time or resources to do this.

HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

“I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” – John D Rockefeller.

In 1902 there was a major promotion of education in the United States of America. Over time, more influential figures joined this movement, and one prominent supporter was John D. Rockefeller, who had a thriving oil business and needed a substantial labor force.

With government permission, he played a key role in opening around 1,000 schools. John D Rockefeller gave approximately 1 billion in today’s money worth in donations towards setting up schools across the nation. “in our dreams …people yield themselves with perfect docility to our moulding hands. The present educational conventions fade from our minds, and unhampered by tradition we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk.”

For Rockefeller, this became American industrial society – and it was the beginning of the assembly line with rigid like jobs. He wanted to knock the edges off people. Have them ‘trust the science’, eugenics, and believe in the perfect man.

Unhampered by tradition, unburdened by what has been. This was optimistic futurism, and the totalitarian world view of the time.

HITLER’S SCHOOLS

The Nazis aimed to indoctrinate youth through reforming the education system. They aimed to de-intellectualise education: they did not want education to provoke people to ask questions or think for themselves. They believed this approach would instill obedience and belief in the Nazi worldview – thus creating the ideal future generation.

The Nazis first focused on changing what students learned. They changed the core curriculum to emphasise sports, history and racial science as the most important subjects.

In 1936, sport was taught for a minimum of two to three hours every school day. By 1938, this had been increased to five hours every day – building towards a physically superior race.  Subjects such as religion became less important, and were eventually removed from the curriculum altogether.

They introduced new textbooks which were often racist, and promoted ideas such as the need for Lebensraum. This is a German word which meant space or room, promoting the idea that German people needed more land, supporting the need to invade and expand.

Any textbooks used to educate students had to be approved by the party.

The Nazis also placed great emphasis on who the teachers were. Under the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service Act of 7 April 1933, just three months after Hitler became chancellor, all Jewish teachers, and teachers with undesirable political beliefs (such as communists), were dismissed.

GLOBALISATION

Enter the rise of globalisation. By 1950 only 32% graduated from high school and that rose to around 50% by the 1970’s. The egalitarian era with a thriving middle class was actually dominated by people who lacked a high school diploma.

The Department of Education was established in its initial form in 1877 under the Education Act. In 1989 it was replaced by a decentralised Ministry of Education under the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms.

A rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our national security doubled down on the things that are terrible about school – rigidity, bureaucracy, backwards methods that are contrary to the way people learn. The beastly authoritarian system sunk its claws in to wreak even more havoc. In addition to standardisation, Rockefeller’s lasting influence had extended to suppressing alternative educational models that posed a threat to the industrialist agenda.

Independent and progressive educational methods that encouraged critical thinking and individualism were sidelined in favour of a system designed to produce obedient workers. To maintain control over the labor force, ensuring that individuals remained cogs in the industrial wheel rather than empowered, critical thinkers capable of challenging the status quo.

Today Globalisation of education has taken a new level. The world health organisation takes centre stage. WHO plays a central role in global literacy and health education. WHO’s initiatives include establishing the WHO Academy, which offers online and in-person learning on health topics, and promoting health literacy among populations.

The Regions they currently cover include Africa, the America’s, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia, and the Western Pacific.

The WHO is an unelected group which has partnered with government leaders, councils, advisory groups, goodwill ambassadors and advocates, private sectors corporate investors, health organisations, and educational services. Who is funded by businesses, high net worth individuals, strategic investors, and other stakeholders.

Their influence covers a broad range of ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ which seek a global partnership covering “the future we want” with sights on transforming the world.
Jeepers, where could this possibly go wrong?

INTENTIONAL DESIGN BEHIND HOW IT IS RUN

The way children are taught in school has been designed purposefully with a very specific intention in mind and it goes back to the Prussian model.

In Prussia the idea was to churn out soldiers but in the United States the goal was churn out an army of workers. Making the corporations they worked for rich.

Schools were not bringing on innovators, or thinkers but training a force of workers.

IVAN ILLICH – DESCHOOLING SOCIETY 1970

Philosopher Ivan Illich argues that there are two curriculums.

The official stated curriculum – which is all about measurable objectives – mastering fractions, understanding ww1, analysing Shakespear. Thats what gets tested and that’s what shows up on the report card.

And the hidden curriculum – To understand this think about the structure of the school day. The bell rings you move, the bell rings again you stop. You sit in rows. You face the front. You raise your hands to speak. You ask permission to go to the toilet. What are these rituals teaching you? Compliance, obedience, deference to authority. When these things become the dominant form of learning they shape your world view.

Illich argued that the hidden curriculum suppresses critical thinking. Because critical thinking involves questioning what you are told, challenging authority, thinking outside the prescribed box. The hidden curriculum rewards conformity, it rewards those who follow the rules, those who memorise the right answers, those who don’t rock the boat.

This has profound consequences throughout our lives. Think about learned helplessness. When individuals repeatedly experience situations where actions have little or no impact on the outcome they become passive, accepting their fate as inevitable.

Think about the classroom. Students are given little to no control over what they learn, how they learn or when they learn it. The curriculum is predetermined, the methods are standardised, the lessons dictated by the teacher, or more accurately by the system.

Over time they develop a sense of powerlessness. That learning is something that happens to you. The opposite of self directed learning.

The hidden curriculum teaches you about consumption. Knowledge is a commodity to be acquired, packaged, delivered by certified experts. You learn curriculums, consume lessons and textbooks. And are given grades and diplomas.

But deep learning is active, exploratory and often messy, making mistakes and pursuing curiosities. Learning comes with life, not a certificate. It’s not about absorbing information, it’s about constructing your own understanding of the world.

The school system is not preparing you for a life of intellectual freedom and critical engagement but for a life of conformity.

Ironically, Illich likened schools to a factory – churning out workers, consumers and citizens who fit neatly into social and economic order. This is like a betrayal of the socratic model of what learning should be – empowering individuals to think for themselves, to challenge assumptions and work towards a more just and equitable world.

‘FREE TO LEARN’

Dr Peter Gray – Researcher and Scholar at Boston College, wrote a book titled ‘Free to Learn’. In this Gray outlines that the very structure of schooling implicitly teaches that learning is about following instructions, not about pursuing genuine understanding.

Gray asserts that children are being deprived of independent unsupervised play because we live in a culture that is always focussing on outcomes and on measuring.  He believes we are not paying enough attention to happiness, creativity, and free thought, with too much emphasis on academic success.

He says ‘when children are allowed to learn to read when they want to, and to read in their own way, they often become bigger readers.’

He advocates play for children to practice skills, gain confidence and develop the ability to solve their own problems. This allows children to be less afraid and upset by challenges in life.

Gray says “we’ve become obsessed with standardisation’ and believes you cannot measure real education.  He says “The only way to see if learning is working is to see how young people adapt to living in the real world. The test scores don’t predict that. What the test scores are predicting is whether they make it into the next level of schooling.  It’s not even predicting how well you do in employment or in the amount of money you make.”

The biggest thing that we stifle for kids is that there is no educational freedom, with no time or opportunity to question things.

Critical thinking, problem thinking comes through play.  Don’t rush children through their childhood, think where their imagination is taking them. Creativity, the spark to imagine, to invent, to express.  Is explored through play, it arises from within. It cannot be taught in a classroom.  Even academic skills – we learn our native language through interaction, it happens almost entirely organically. It is learned almost entirely outside of a classroom.

Creative thinking and critical thinking are not opposing forces, but rather complementary skills that work together to enhance problem-solving and promote innovation and growth.

SUBMITTING TO THE GROUP VS THINKING FOR YOURSELF

The failures of our public school system are not failures at all. Imagine that the school system was not designed for the purpose of fostering critical thinking and unlocking human potential, instead being open to the possibility that the school system might be operating to our detriment, exactly as intended.

With the globalization of almost every sector, our education, health, food, finances, etc more than ever, it’s important to ask the right questions. Questions that allow us to challenge. Not questions based on assumptions, but questions that are deeper and in tune with what actually is.

When we are programmed to submit it’s really hard to come to an understanding as to who we are in the world and what we think of as authentic, true, good and beautiful. We need to connect to our inner standing. To try and do what is right for you rather than what the rest of society is doing.

WE NEED TO DRAW OUT, RATHER THAN PUT IN

When children are taken through the socratic method, it goes with the idea that an innate sense of knowing, truth, and ethics are already in there (we feel, we experience, we observe, we interact, we intuit) so it’s our job as parents to draw out rather than put in.

This approach challenges children to think about their own ideas. It’s often Project based. Self learning. With no teachers. The parents are there to help when needed and provide resources, time and educational freedom to pursue ideas. And it’s important to debate and challenge ideas to test them. This provides children with the ability to take ownership of their own learning, their own thoughts with the freedom to explore.

The disruption of innovative ideas occurs when we constantly provide information. Instead we need to allow children to learn to evaluate evidence and think about what it means to them. One of the greatest gifts is to put it back on students to come up with ideas.

The execution of Socrates ultimately strengthened the impact of his ideas, particularly those concerning self-knowledge, virtue, and the pursuit of wisdom. His willingness to accept death rather than renounce his beliefs became a powerful symbol of integrity. A testament to the importance of critical thinking.

His legacy continues today in the pursuit of truth and free thought. Every time we are an open honest expression of our own beliefs we become the disruptive technology that will change the world.