Monday, August 27, 2007

The bottom line: a thinking population has to learn how

The NYT finally confirms what we've been saying for years: that teaching people critical thinking, critical speaking, critical writing, critical listening is essential just so they can function.

Young Workers: U Nd 2 Improve Ur Writing Skills:

Nearly half the executives said that entry-level workers lacked writing skills, and 27 percent said that they were deficient in critical thinking.
Line of "Course goals" from our syllabi:
7. Listen, read, speak, and write critically about the relationship between musical styles and cultural histories.
Yes--this is what we do: we teach them to think. And yes, it's goddamned essential if you want to have a functional culture. Glad to see that even the Paper of Record gets it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No kidding. Saw this too (even historical musicologists read the business section---quickly, once a week), cut it out, and it's on the bulletin board outside my office.

K

CJS said...

Yep. Always nice to have documented "dollars 'n' cents" rationales for the cost-benefit equation in fine arts or humanities education.

Thanks for stpping by.