At Trail Ridge Middle School in Longmont, Colorado recently, a sixth grade science class took up the topic of global warming using a method that even Al Gore refuses to try – they debated the issue from two points of view and a jury of their peers made a decision based on the evidence presented. The verdict: by a vote of seven to four, they concluded that humans don’t cause global warming. I was amazed at the depth of analysis these young people displayed. See for yourself:
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?ID=15357
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with their conclusion, the exercise of examining the evidence from both sides is certainly preferable to merely turning on a DVD of An Inconvenient Truth a pouring one point of view into their brains.
Having been a substitute teacher for about four years back in the 90’s, I can’t tell you the number of kids I ran into even at the high school level who were incapable of any thinking skills higher than copying a word from the textbook into a space on the worksheet. It’s encouraging to see that middle schoolers are learning how to present different arguments, evaluate the pros and cons, and come to their own conclusion.
It’s been my experience that kids this age have an innate ability to think outside of the box; their minds still haven’t been programed into groupthink.
Which reminds me of the story about a large truck that got stuck in an underpass with a clearance that was just a little too low for the truck to make it all the way through. The driver tried gunning the engine, but the truck would move neither forward nor backward. Others tried prying the truck out with crowbars, but to no avail.
Finally, a young boy (probably about the same age as our Longmont middle schoolers) happened to walk by the scene. He assessed the situation for a moment, and then made a suggestion that hadn’t occurred to any of the adults:
“Why don’t you just let some air out of the tires?”
From the mouths of babes …