Kwan Ting Chan wrote:
MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
We should teach people to be critical. Far too often people take what they read for granted without any thought or double-checking. We should work to keep featured articles accurate (because they're supposed to be the best). To get rid of other inaccuracies we should look for sources. If we don't have any, people should be naturally untrusting and try to verify the info another way.
NO ONE can guarantee absolutely correct info. Look at Britannica.
Teaching people to be critical is itself a process. In all but the most advanced educational systems that is contrary to centuries of established habit. Before a person can be effectively critical he needs to believe that his opinions matter.
The process isn't helped when most of the education system we have in this world frown upon any student below postgraduate level from making any opinion whatsoever. How can we teach a person to be effectively critical when everyone else is saying you can't have your own opinion unless you have a PhD (or are working on one), all you can do is summarize what others have said already.
The first tool is patience.
Ec