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This Scientist’s Ideas Of What Testing Does To Kids Is Really, Really On Point

There are certain skills that schools need to make sure kids have. The ol’ “Reading, Writing, Arithmetic” is a starting point, but there’s an entire realm of education that our kids need to know — and some are not getting it. 
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Lawrence Krauss here asserts here that perhaps equally important as “The Three R’s” is teaching the ability to think.

To reason, to find answers after asking questions. That is, after all, the essence of learning once you get past the basics. 

When things kinda go off the rails is when local school boards get to decide what is taught. Those are largely made up of individuals who have no educational training. Sometimes, school board members even come from extremist backgrounds, and what the students are required to learn then suffers accordingly. 

In fact, due in part to those very same school boards, some schools have curricula that includes challenging evolution as well as the fact that climate change is real.

This is not how our future generations will make it in the world. 

I think a fair middle-ground is to teach things like “Intelligent Design” in religion and social studies classes, rather than in science class.

But teaching the ability to think is still key. Watch:

More from Lawrence M. Krauss. Thumbnail image via Flickr. For books by Krauss, take a looky here.

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