BRYAN CAPLAN
May 7, 2013
Keynesian Bets: What's Out There
May 6, 2013
Keynesian Bets Bleg
May 6, 2013
The Pyramid of Macroeconomic Insight and Virtue
May 2, 2013
A Natalist Provision
May 1, 2013
I Was a Teenage Misanthrope
DAVID HENDERSON
May 5, 2013
John Thacker on Vaccinations and the Sequester
May 3, 2013
Chef Rudy's Virtues Project
May 2, 2013
My take on Reinhart and Rogoff
May 1, 2013
Medicare Kills a Program


I know you've touched on this before--particularly in the "magic of education" post linked above--but I'd like to hear a really thorough discussion of the "I teach my students how to think, not what to think" general notion. I've summarized your arguments to some of my fellow professors and some of my students, and this inevitably is the notion they keep coming back to. What's the refutation?
Is it really that implausible that we can teach students "how to think"? Is teaching "critical thinking skills" mostly a waste of time?
I'm still trying to figure out how none of this makes Caplan a massive hypocrit.
I'd like to second Luke's call for a "how to think, not what to think" refutation, and a refutation of the idea that learning is transferable between domains. Why doesn't a child who learns to play chess or a musical instrument become a better learner?
My question is why should this be a "case against (all) education" instead of a case against the current model of education. In your book "The Myth of the Rational Voter" you thoroughly explain how certain biases hurt societies, and how they can, to some extent, be corrected by education.
Shouldn't we try to create an evidence-based teaching environment that teaches people whatever is needed to correct biases which hurt their personal lives and of people around them?
While we have way too much education about Shakespeare, the causes of World War II or how to measure the volume of a cone, we have way too little teaching of economics, statistics, cognitive biases, the scientific method and other subjects that could actually be helpful.
I'd like to listen but being from the UK the timing makes it unreasonable.
Was it recorded? Is there a link?