Thinking Citizen Blog — The Thinking Citizenship Exam Re-visited
Thinking Citizen Blog — Friday is Education and Education Policy Day
Today’s Topic — The Thinking Citizenship Exam Re-visited
Most days, my focus is on learning something new. Today, something different — a review of the Thinking Citizenship test I developed about fifteen years ago. I still feel strongly that some version of this test should be the backbone of ever social studies curriculum in every school in every country in the world. If you have not taken it yet, please give if a try. But be warned that when I took it myself I flunked and it took me ten years to pass. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
MAKING A STRONG CASE FOR ALL THREE SIDES IN THE NEXT ELECTION — LEFT, RIGHT, AND CENTER
- All three sides have principles, facts, and solutions.
2. Do you know what they are?
3. If you don’t you can’t weigh their respective merits.
NB: The only way to know if you know what they are is to write down a coherent paragraph explaining each. Go!
DO THIS FOR EACH OF THE SEVEN ISSUES SO IMPORTANT THEY SHOULD INFLUENCE YOUR DECISION
1. Foreign policy, economic policy, climate change.
2. Health care, education, social justice.
3. Political process reform.
NB: If you haven’t analyzed all seven issues in detail, you can’t possibly prioritize them rationally.
ANALOGIES — THE 10,000 HOUR RULE, TENNIS, PIANO — ANYTHING WORTH DOING
1. Thinking citizenship is not easier than tennis, piano, any sport, any musical instrument.
2. If anything it is harder. Swinging a racket is easier than mastering the basics of law and economics.
3. Thinking citizenship training is like rigorous debate training. It’s like what law students learn in law school.
NB: This training should not be elective and peripheral. It should be mandatory and central if we are to be a democracy in more than name. Where is the fallacy in my argument?
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Whenever you are wrong, admit it. Whenever you are right, shut up.” - Ogden Nash
THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY ARE AVAILABLE HERE:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to education or education policy. Or the coolest thought however half-baked you had. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to education or education policy that the rest of us may have missed. Or just some random education-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something that is dear to your heart.
