Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Miguel Guhlin references this article, musing that "I feel they should be shorter. Evidence, perhaps, of what this article asserts: '...the death of critical reading harms the sentient minds of billions.'" I personally think that critical thinking has never really entered the mainstream; it has mostly never been taught in schools, and most 'media literacy' programs died from lack of consistent funding. Even this article represents a confusion between 'critical reading' and 'remembering' and even 'comprehending'. "Too many of us have lost - or are losing - the focus and patience for lengthy, complex texts." As a society we have a very short memory, forgetting that a higher education - and anything resembling critical thinking - was until only a few decades ago the preserve of the private school set.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Aug 28, 2025 9:15 p.m.

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