Reply #45: My 1970's "hippie commune" school taught critical thinking skills

[Lorien]

It was a very simple method;instead of asking us for an answer to a question like "When was the civil war"? our teachers would ask "what events and beliefs of the time contributed to the conflict that became America's civil war"? They didn't just want facts and figures; they wanted a round table discussion that each and every student contributed to. They wanted debates and "light bulb moments", not just regurgitation of textbook quotations. Test questions were usually in essay form and often began with "what was ____ and why, in your opinion, is it important or unimportant"? Everything was very hands on. Biology courses often took place in a forest or on a pond. Physics classes might take place in a glass blower's studio. We were never simply given answers to remember; we had to discover them for ourselves, often using our own resources.