- Since the time of Socrates and Aristotle, people have sought to understand this world, the truths governing that world, and our place in the world.
- Information and change occurs more rapidly than ever before. The definition of illiteracy in the past meant not knowing how to read and write. In order to be literate today, a student must know how to learn.
- According to the Foundation for Critical Thinking, critical thinking is "a rich, variegated, and to some extent, open-ended concept." Socratic seminars in classrooms today engage in disciplined questioning that probes students' thinking, leading to answers that generate new questions.
- Future solutions to problems will come about only if students learn to do something constructive with the knowledge they accumulate, and apply it to positive belief systems.
- In 1956, renowned psychologist Benjamin Bloom developed a "taxonomy" of thinking skills teachers use in today's classrooms. These skills range from knowledge and comprehension at the lower end to higher order thinking skills such as application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Teachers try to arm students with knowledge, recognizing that the true value of learning lies in what students are able to do with that knowledge.
