Critical Thinking? You Need Knowledge By Diane Ravitch: Article Analysis

“Critical Thinking? You Need Knowledge” Summary The article, “Critical Thinking? You Need Knowledge” by Diane Ravitch, discusses how in the past people have been deprived from the thinking process and abstract thinking skills. Students need to be given more retainable knowledge by their teachers to improve their critical thinking skills. (Ravitch). The latest fad that has swept the states is called the “21st-Century Skills”. With this, the expectation is that students will improve skills such as cooperative learning and critical thinking, and in the end, be able to compete for jobs in the global economy more efficiently (Ravitch). Putting a priority on skills pushes many subjects, but skill-centered, knowledge-free education has never worked according to Ravitch. In 1911, educators were called to abandon their current academic ideals and adapt education to the real life and needs of students by the dean of education at Stanford (Ravitch). A couple years later something called “The Project Method” took over the education world (Ravitch). This program had boys and girls engaging in projects that they got to choose and were encouraged to work on in groups (Ravitch). Although students were learning real life skill there was resistance against it (Ravitch).

In this time, most teachers’ brains have been numbed from all of the talk about the thinking process and abstract thinking skills (Ravitch). Students need a lot of knowledge to be able to think critically as they are expected to (Ravitch). We stand on the shoulders of those before us, we did not restart as each generation comes up in the world as we wish it would (Ravitch). What we need to be learning is how to use our brain’s capacity to make generalizations so we can see past our own experiences