Need for Education in Formal Logic
- by: Lindsey O'Connor
- recipient: Secretary of Education and Local School Board
Our children are being shortchanged. The most important instruction any child can receive is in the principles of formal logic and the scientific method. Having such tools at his command will allow a child to grow into an adult capable of distinguishing the credible from the incredible and the true from the false. Unfortunately, there are far too many adults in our society who are incapable of this mental exercise. Witness the large numbers of individuals who quite honestly and uncritically believe in alien abductions (I'm not speaking of alien life itself, which is quite possible), Intelligent Design, Bigfoot, strange and unproven alternative medical remedies, channeling the spirits of the dead, fairies, Atlantis, Holocaust denial (and all other unproven conspiracy theories), and the like. Such people have never been taught how to adequately evaluate such claims in a logical and rigorous fashion through the use of logical reasoning and a reliance on properly designed double-blind scientific studies.
Due to their lack of understanding of the evidentiary process, so many proponents of non-mainstream theories are under the erroneous impression that if their beliefs cannot be disproven by science then those theories must be true (or at least are worthy of serious consideration.) However, as has been famously said: extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof - and it is the job of the proponent to provide such evidence, not the job of the skeptic to disprove the theory.
Our public schools (and most of our private ones as well) are purely and simply failing our children in this regard. Serious and continuing instruction at all grade levels should be given our schoolchildren in the principles of formal logic and the scientific method. A thorough understanding of the means by which any claim should properly be evaluated will be an invaluable resource throughout the life of every child.
The job of an educator or a parent is not merely to teach a child the facts as we believe them to be. It is to teach the child the methods by which those facts should be evaluated and accepted (or rejected). Anything less is a denial to the child of what he truly needs to thrive intellectually in this exceedingly complex world of ours.
We the undersigned are deeply concerned about the lack of intellectual qualities being developed in our children.
Our children are being shortchanged. The most important instruction any child can receive is in the principles of formal logic and the scientific method. Having such tools at his command will allow a child to grow into an adult capable of distinguishing the credible from the incredible and the true from the false. Unfortunately, there are far too many adults in our society who are incapable of this mental exercise. Witness the large numbers of individuals who quite honestly and uncritically believe in alien abductions, Intelligent Design, Bigfoot, strange and unproven alternative medical remedies, channeling the spirits of the dead, fairies, Atlantis, Holocaust denial (and all other unproven conspiracy theories), and the like. Such people have never been taught how to adequately evaluate such claims in a logical and rigorous fashion through the use of logical reasoning and a reliance on properly designed double-blind scientific studies.
Our public schools (and most of our private ones as well) are purely and simply failing our children in this regard. Serious and continuing instruction at all grade levels should be given our schoolchildren in the principles of formal logic and the scientific method. A thorough understanding of the means by which any claim should properly be evaluated will be an invaluable resource throughout every child%u2019s life.
The job of an educator or a parent is not merely to teach a child the facts as we believe them to be%u2026.it is to teach the child the methods by which those facts should be evaluated and accepted (or rejected). Anything less is a denial to the child of what he truly needs to thrive intellectually in this exceedingly complex world of ours.
We urge you to implement a mandatory course of instruction throughout our public schools in the principles of formal logic and the scientific method. The future of our nation depends on the brainpower of its citizenry - and that brainpower cannot develop properly without the proper tools.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter.
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