Seeing Education from the Other Side

 The word education encapsulates many different people in many different walks of life. In the article Re-thinking the GOP platform written on July 9, 2012 in The Daily Texan, the author is arguing that recent Republican education platforms which oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills are really trying to remove the parts of their education that would encourage students to think critically. He/ she states that "the party goes astray by making the insulting and incorrect assumption that Texas students are unable to think for themselves." While this author is clearly considering the college-aged audience as the main population affected by this, I don't believe that they are looking at the subject from the perspective of a parent. While I don't agree completely with the legislation, I do understand that if I am a parent, and I send my 9 year old kid to school, I don't want them being taught that evolution is fact, I want them being taught what I believe as well as what others do, which was a part of the recent GOP platform. Critical thinking in elementary and middle school versus in college are two very different animals. The author of this article neglects to realize that while critical thinking in college may mean challenging your the "fixed belief system" of your parents, it most certainly does not in elementary. The Republican party was not stating that they don't want children to learn how to solve math problems that require you to think out of the box, they are wanting what children are taught to respect the authority that currently resides over them- their parents. I don't understand what is wrong with that. Once you go off to college those beliefs will be challenged primarily by the world around you, not the professor in front of you, so again I ask- what is wrong with encouraging kids to listen to their parents?