Rethinking Thinking

Honestly, I thought poorly of this article. I guess it doesn't help that the pages were stapled out of order. As I read it, I just got more and more irritated with it. I considered unstapling it and putting it in order, but the pages aren't printed front and back in the right order either, so I couldn't. And this bothered me.

The writers put down the education system - which bothered me. Both of my parents are (and one of my grandparents was) public school teachers, and most of the illusions people have about "better ways to teach" are simply illusions; either impractical, impossible, or previously tried and failed. Teaching this sort of thinking seems to me like legislating "being nice to people!" Or nailing jello to a wall. Or herding Siamese cats (undoubtedly the most stubborn and crazy cats there are). Above all, I hate people who criticize systems without proposing something viable instead.

I just find the whole idea of this article redundant and unneccessary - at least for me. I don't think that people are discouraged from thinking creatively. I think they quite reasonably require people to prove using words and numbers. This article almost seems to bash conventional thinking, and I honestly don't like that. I know well what it feels like to think in the abstract, especially with my crafting projects, or when I get really strange ideas. (I almost feel like the Cookies are Viruses essay is required here...) I just don't like people telling me I have to think this way any more than I would like people telling me I can't think this way. (And I have never had someone tell me I couldn't think this way. Other than my exgirlfriend.)