Washington State High Schoolers..free college???

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by fnh

As a PhD scientist with multiple degrees in STEM fields, I strongly disagree with 509. The classical "liberal arts" do indeed promote and encourage the full range of critical thinking, more so than STEM education in my opinion, as well as hone the communication skills (writing, speech) necessary to argue one's position cogently. There is an enormous difference between knowledge and discernment, and the liberal arts excel at teaching the latter.

Exactly!

My first two years of college as a pre-med major were spent memorizing formulas, chemical equations and body parts. None of which taught me critical thinking. In fact, the professors plainly told us that that is what we'd have to get used to - we'd learn how to put it all together later.

Compare that to my last two years of college - as a communications major - when we were challenged every day to do things like put together a business plan, or analyze and propose an approach to a corporate crisis. These types of tasks require students to examine information that is not always crystal clear, weigh the potential outcomes, and recommend a course; compare that to most sciences, where there is a definite wrong and right answer. Critical thinking, IMO, is more about the former than the latter.

BTW, one of the hardest classes I took in college was sociological theory. THAT was serious critical thinking - reading really tedious texts and applying different sociological models to successful (or unsuccessful) societies of yesterday and today.