Will this be the year?

Well,here it is,just before Labor Day.In a few short days kids will be back in school,if they are not already.So will  this be the year that children are instructed in  how to think,rather than just what to think? I'm talking about older children for the most part.Obviously a great deal more of the answers in the younger grades are of the simple right or wrong variety.There is only one right way to spell cat or to add two and two.But it's not really too early to begin instruction in basic logic.

To the best of my knowledge,this is the first time in my blogging career that I've ever recommended a book.But Normand Baillargeon's book A Short  Course In Intellectual Self Defense is a must read for any learner.When I first encountered the book,about eight years ago I wondered why I'd ever gotten out of Junior high school without encountering something similar too it.Certainly by the time I reached college I had professors who expected that I would have already acquired the skills that are so well laid out in this book.In short,it teaches readers how to think.How to recognize and avoid errors in logic and how statistics can be manipulated.It's aimed at those seeking a means of not falling for everything being presented by today's media or politicians and,as such has a pronounced political angle.But you need not be a savvy political observer to put this book to good use.It's well presented and simple enough for the average grade eight reader to understand and apply,and is not long and drawn out,so it does not demand a long attention span.Yet it outlines skills every learner needs.

Here in the province of Ontario,the sex education curriculum is back in the news.Last school year saw some parents,particularly Muslim parents opt out of having this subject taught to their children.Sex is,and most likely always will be a controversial,but necessary area of instruction.And,unless things have drastically changed since my school days,it's hardly the only source of controversy in school.My school days may be somewhat unique in that I had a gentleman named Malcom Ross for eighth grade history.That name will be familiar,if not notorious to many Canadians,as someone who denies or at least downplays the Holocaust.That was a bit after my time,but I was nonetheless presented by views in his class that generated a lot of disagreement.I truly wish I'd had a book to assist me in staying ahead of him,and others in terms of defending my own thoughts intellectually.

So,when you send your teen aged children off to school next week,take the time to slip a copy of A Short Course In Intellectual Self Defense  into their new back packs.And discuss it with them.This book will serve them as well ten years from now as it does today.Until there is a real commitment to teach them how to think...