What they never taught us

[LJP07]

Students are thought to be independent thinkers in University. They get the chance to experience things first hand academically, socially and physically, it's through that experience in the education system that should develop the student. If students fail to achieve this, then they have failed the education system.

It's not a matter of what they didn't teach us, it will always become a matter of what we didn't teach ourselves, which is much more important.

[coberst]

Originally Posted by C1ay

I am critical, i.e. skeptical, of everything. I think I've learned this quite well myself, if it's actually learned. I have always questioned things as far back as I can remember so I suspect that maybe I was just born that way.

We are born with the ability to add and subtract quantities of up to 3 and 4. In fact many animals have that ability. However, it would be a shame if we did not go ahead and study math and thereby extend that ability greatly. Such is the case with Critical Thinking. You might be amazed how much you can improve yor judgment if you were to study such matters.

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by C1ay

I am critical, i.e. skeptical, of everything. I think I've learned this quite well myself, if it's actually learned. I have always questioned things as far back as I can remember so I suspect that maybe I was just born that way.

I'm with C1ay. There was what the schools gave me to learn, and then there were the questions *I* wanted answers to. I ransacked the school libraries and town library to find my own answers. I taught myself algebra in the 4th and 5th grades. Maybe some folks just don't ask questions and others are compelled to do so.

[Eclogite]

Originally Posted by Pyrotex

Maybe some folks just don't ask questions and others are compelled to do so.

Can you think of any young child that does not pester its parents with the question, why? Perhaps the parents who make a good effort at answering their children thereby encourage them to continue to be questioning. Parents who get frustrated and tell their children to shut up, inhibit this natural tendency to question.
I have no proper evidence to support this idea, but it seems to me more plausible than Coberst's idea that the fault lies with the educational system. There is, after all, a lot of data to support the fact that children's character is largely established before they reach school age.