Saturday, June 10, 2017

Annabel Heseltine — Should Reasoning be the Fourth R?

The three Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic have always been the core fundamentals of teaching, with an implicit understanding that, until these are mastered, it is almost impossible to learn anything else, even less to be prepared for the job market as an adult. 
It was Sir William Curtis, a member of parliament in 1795, who first coined the phrase the three Rs, although the Victorians referred to mental arithmetic as reckoning. But a fourth R has been hovering just below the radar for quite some time – reasoning. 
Reasoning, or philosophy, is catching on as an important skill to give to pupils who are being trained for an unpredictable world, where their minds will need to be more flexible and enquiring than ever before. Life careers are no longer guaranteed and, indeed, many pupils will be following careers not yet invented....
Rational inquiry is the foundation of liberal education. Logic is the basis of rational inquiry. The aim is development of critical thinking.
School House
Should Reasoning be the Fourth R?
Annabel Heseltine

3 comments:

Dan Lynch said...

I'm pretty sure that in red states the 4th R is "religion." Reasoning is discouraged.

Matt Franko said...

So when the monetarist's theories fail, and this failure is never acknowledged, is this also a failure of reasoning?

Paul: ""Because, knowing God, they do not glorify or thank Him as God, but were made vain in their reasoning, and their unintelligent heart is darkened. Alleging themselves to be wise. They are made stupid,..." (Rom.1:21,22).

Its the VANITY coupled with the reasoning that does not allow them to admit their theories are incorrect... without the vanity, they would just 'go back to the drawing board' and try to figure it out another way...

You have to make sure that your reasonings are never in vanity... otherwise you are made stupid as we can see everyday with these people...

Matt Franko said...

Here Paul again:

"and again, 'The Lord doth know the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.' 1 Cor 3:20

Paul has numerous references to this nexus between vanity/reasoning/stupidity....

these morons are vain SOBs... they're never going to get out of it...