40 Years After Moon Landing: Why Aren't People Smarter?

In the beginning of this article, the author, Benjamin Radford, compares what people were doing in the 1900's to what we are currently doing. Back then, newspapers and magazines were full of advertisements for instant weight loss gizmo's, miracle cures, and all sorts of things along these lines. Look in any newspaper, magazine, or just turn on the T.V. now and you'll see numerous ads for the exact same things, just a little different or as they all want you to believe, "better." The author uses this information to point out that even though we have acquired a lot more knowledge from then, we aren't, in a sense, smarter than we were a century ago.

Humans were able to land on the moon a while ago but, 40 years later, we haven't progressed much. It's not as if we haven't discovered more things or uncovered more facts, it's just that we haven't been able to apply it to our situation in the world. The author links this problem to education and, to be more specific, critical thinking. Despite all the classes that are included in school curriculum's, critical thinking classes aren't usually held and this is an important thing to learn. In order to move forward and apply our knowledge to help and improve the world, we have to be able to think analytically and critically.

I think that the author is right. In order to move forward and help make our world a better place, we have to be able to think logically. Hard times are on our world and more are yet to come. We have to be able to think of new inventions and solutions to things like global warming. We should understand and apply the new facts we learn to reality. But, since critical thinking classes are rarely ever included in school curriculum's, we have to learn to do it some other way. This is a crucial step to making our world a better place.

Click here for the link to the article.