Teaching Pigs to Sing

I was delighted with Harriet Hall's article, "Teaching Pigs to Sing: An Experiment in bringing Critical Thinking to the Masses" (May/June 2006). The fable about the Tooth Fairy was upsettingly true. Moving from the supernatural to the natural, from superstition to rationality, from belief to evidence, is complex but an extremely important issue.

I have a suggestion for a step in this direction. It is what I call process education, or more simply, learning how to learn.

Our schools emphasize learning content. The teaching approach is essentially: "I know you don't know, but I'm going to tell you," the simple transmission of information. Necessary, but hardly sufficient. The how of learning--critical-thinking skills, problem solving, the steps in logic and rationality--are learnable and teachable. Competent teachers are moving away from simply being experts in their fields toward helping students be better at the processes of learning--to be not only learned but also learners.

With skill and over time, a person can be helped to be more of an inquirer rather than a receptacle, and will realize his or herself that the Tooth Fairy is merely a little myth.

Philip E. Johnson

Tucson, Arizona

I am really enjoying the latest issue of SI. Thank you for providing an excellent magazine.

Two articles (so far!) stand out in my mind. First is Harriet Hall's article, "Teaching Pigs to Sing." Her willingness to try and work with the unwilling to learn is admirable if not questionable. Perhaps she has shown us that the best thing we can do is to serve as role models for others (as skeptics)--hopefully, one day, one of the willingly ignorant will ask, "What do you think?" and then we have the chance to start "singing." Great article, Dr. Hall.

The article by Scott O. Lilienfeld was excellent as well. I think that we are the tortoise in the race with the hare. We are not the fastest runner, but we are slow and steady with regard to just about all things, specifically, in this case, the entire ID/creationism vs. evolution debate. As Lilienfeld points out, there really is no contest, but the "hare" has made a race of it. With the recent decision by Judge John E. Jones III, it appears the tortoise may win this part.

Thanks again for a great magazine.

Stephen Turrisi

Weston, Florida

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