Critical Thinking is Being Banned

TheDaily Texan posted an article called Re-thinking the GOP platform. This editorial is about the 2012 Texas Republican Party platform and the arguments students at The University of Texas at Austin are making against it. The Republican Platform states that they “oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking (HOT), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.” I can see why The Daily Texan Editorial Board is against this platform, after all the people behind The Daily Texan are students themselves from The University of Texas at Austin.

According to this editorial the drafters of the Republicans’ platform devoted two and a half pages to positions under the heading “Educating Our Children”. Also this party is planning to stop multicultural education, and revoke the top 10% rule so more Texans can attend the Universities of Texas and leave out, out-of-state students and foreigners.

It makes sense that students at the University of Texas at Austin (the staff of The Daily Texan) are opposed to this platform and giving it the stink eye. The Universities of Texas are not just made up of Texan culture, but many different ones. There is a lot of diversity and THAT is what makes the Universities whole. It is logical that The Daily Texas is critiquing this platform. The Republicans are against everything these U.T. students are for. Apparently, Republicans are against critical thinking and the teaching of new ideas that do not promote what your parents taught you. Um, isn’t that called growing up?

I do not understand this Republican philosophy, educated our children but do not educated them fully? I agree with this article and think programs like HOT benefit us. We, as students, are going to school to get educated and grow as a person with the new knowledge we obtain. How can we come up with new ideas? We need new ideas from different people we cannot just stay inside the same bubble. How are the future leaders of this country going to manage this country with this type of mentally? It would be like building a castle in a pile of mud.  Diversity in our people is what makes, not only this state function, but the country that we are today.