My Submission to SinceSlicedBread.com
Check out this great site http://www.sinceslicedbread.com for gathering the ideas of ordinary Americans on how to improve the good old USA. Great site. Here is my submission in its longer form. Submissions can only be 175 words. Right now there are almost 800 ideas from every state in the country. Pass the word about this website- what's your idea? You could win $100,000 and if nothing else share your ideas with your fellow concerned citizens.
A Mandatory Curriculum for Teaching Critical Thinking in Consumer (and other) Choices.
A mandatory curriculum for K-12 students focusing on being a thoughtful, informed consumer and citizen. The focus of this curriculum will be making informed choices after doing research and thoughtful consideration of the consequences of each choice made. This curriculum will have to be created with totally non-corporate or religious money and research with an emphasis on healthy choices for each person, the community and the environment based on information from many non-corporate sources. There will be no “right” choices taught- this is not brainwashing- but a step toward creating the life long habit of making informed, thoughtful choices. Maybe start with food and entertainment choices for the youngest children. Progress through the age groups with issues and choices that are important to them. How do their choices affect themselves and the complex web of human and environmental factors that make up each community and the world as a whole? As a teacher in a high school it is very clear to me that the whole focus now in education is on passing mandated tests. The pressure to “teach to the test” is enormous – no they don’t call it that – new terminology has been created but it means the same thing. Nowhere in the curriculum are we teaching critical thinking about consumer decisions. A truly educated population can no longer be held captive by corporate interests. A truly educated population will not allow our precious democracy to be sold out to the greed of big business. I know this will be fought tooth and nail by those in power- deceitful practices will become transparent to a citizenry that has learned how to critically analyze and gather information from a variety of sources.
A Mandatory Curriculum for Teaching Critical Thinking in Consumer (and other) Choices.
A mandatory curriculum for K-12 students focusing on being a thoughtful, informed consumer and citizen. The focus of this curriculum will be making informed choices after doing research and thoughtful consideration of the consequences of each choice made. This curriculum will have to be created with totally non-corporate or religious money and research with an emphasis on healthy choices for each person, the community and the environment based on information from many non-corporate sources. There will be no “right” choices taught- this is not brainwashing- but a step toward creating the life long habit of making informed, thoughtful choices. Maybe start with food and entertainment choices for the youngest children. Progress through the age groups with issues and choices that are important to them. How do their choices affect themselves and the complex web of human and environmental factors that make up each community and the world as a whole? As a teacher in a high school it is very clear to me that the whole focus now in education is on passing mandated tests. The pressure to “teach to the test” is enormous – no they don’t call it that – new terminology has been created but it means the same thing. Nowhere in the curriculum are we teaching critical thinking about consumer decisions. A truly educated population can no longer be held captive by corporate interests. A truly educated population will not allow our precious democracy to be sold out to the greed of big business. I know this will be fought tooth and nail by those in power- deceitful practices will become transparent to a citizenry that has learned how to critically analyze and gather information from a variety of sources.
posted by beckybeads53 | 12:18 PM
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