What is the mark of an educated mind?

When we hear a new idea, our first instinct is to accept the idea without question, either because we have intuition that it is true or we simply trust the messenger. Accepting truth in this way is comforting for it requires very little work and gives us permission to stop thinking. It's also dangerous. Sometimes new ideas must be met with delay and smart suspicion. Delaying acceptance affords us time to evaluate the true worth of ideas and compels us to reject the bad ones. 

Join Steve and Dan Fouts for a conversation about critical thinking using the Teach Different 3-Step conversation method. Make sure you go to teachdifferent.com to learn more, and check out our library of conversation plans, where we’ve compiled dozens of quotes, each with their own claim, counterclaim, and essential question. 

Image source: Wikimedia | Tilemahos Efthimiadis