It's Not Always Easy

Obvious, you say.  It's not always easy to think critically, to rely on observed data.  Here's what I observe in myself and others. It's not easy to think critically when sick. 

• "I want to be outside." 
• "I want to go shopping."
• "I always meet Margie (or Sam, or Bill or Billie) on Thursdays."
• "I feel fine."  (No, I don't.)
• "I can't sleep."
• "I never rest during the day." 

So the excuses go.  Observed data says that for you (your history) and for others, most humans get better faster, miss less work, miss fewer chances to be outside or go shopping, or meet with friends if we consciously and intentionally get rest.  The data-oriented, critically thinking person knows it to be true.  But we rationalize to an extreme when sick.
I have friends who are dealing with end-of-life issues (not too far away for me, either).  Even though they are not taking their medications properly, remembering to turn the stove off, or knowing where they are all the time when they drive, it's not easy for them topermit themselves to notice. Without noticing the data, they find it hard to think well.                   

"Yes, I need help."
"It's time to give up driving, or only drive in my restricted neighborhood."
"I should be exploring assisted living possibilities while I can make my own decisions." 
"I need to update my will."
"I need to work with my attorney to fill out a Power of Attorney and a Medical Power of Attorney."
"It would help my heir(s) if I prepaid my funeral."

If I am ruled by fear of dying, or fear of giving up power, or fear of not being in my own home, I will not find it easy to think clearly.  One method of dealing with this is to do the hard thinking, the tough decision-making, when I am able  think clearly.  The data will help me.  A few clear-thinking friends with good track records of thinking well can help as well.  When do you notice yourself making silly moves because you find it darned hard to think clearly? 

Once and for All

What can be fixed “once and for all”?

Nothing.

Seriously, even the mountains change.  The earth’s crust moves.  All that we think of as “unchanging” and “permanent” - - - changes.  There is no data that suggests that something complex, like a system for educating people, will not need to flex, change, and be adapted.  

When public education moved west into rural areas many farm people resisted it.  They believed they needed their children at home to work.  They believed that if their children learned to farm, do chores, cook and sew, their lives would be good.  Book-learning was not necessary.

How did that work out?  

The world changed, farming became more complex, a small farm would not support all the children when they became adults and married and had children.  Some were required to move to town, move west, move elsewhere in order to survive.  In one lifetime the need for education changed and the skills -- thinking skills - required to survive and even do well changed.  And there was the Dust Bowl. 

Change in society, change in child development, change in what children learn at home, change in societal pressures, and many, many other changes require changes in a complex system like that of public education.  Planning for a system that will be useful for ALL our children, and ALL children yet to be born and yet to immigrate into our country must include planning for appropriate and useful change along with all the changes that will be taking place in our society, our nation, and our cultures.  That will take some very broad and very deep thinking.  Will we be up to the challenge?