The Fascinating Story of Warren Smith II

Critical Thinking is at the core of it...

{This is an update of an earlier post as the critically important second video link (right after he was fired) somehow went to the wrong video. It is now corrected below. My apologies…}

Warren Smith was a Massachusetts K-12 teacher who is now something of a celebrity.

What’s fascinating — and should be of great interest to readers here — is that Warren has become famous for one thing: promoting Critical Thinking to K-12 students!

That a fairly normal teacher is a national poobah primarily because he is advocating that his students become Critical Thinkers, shows that there is a great deal of pent-up interest in learning and applying that skill. In other words, it is intuitively obvious to even those who are just paying minimal attention, that for the American Experiment to survive — and thrive — we need to have a LOT more Critically Thinking citizens.

Here’s a brief outline of Warren’s story, innocuously starting earlier this year, when he put out a short video where he gave a student a lesson on Critical Thinking. Watch it:

Clearly his mini thought process lesson was a success!

A MAJOR part of fixing our K-12 education system is to have a formal part of the K-12 curricula (in the subject area of Science) where students are specifically taught how to be Critical Thinkers. There is plenty of documentation about how to do this, and Warren demonstrates a powerful way, akin to the Socratic method.

Critical Thinking needs to be looked at as a SKILL — like cooking. If you want to be an accomplished chef, which of the following do you think would produce better results: a teacher saying to you that you can be a culinary artist, and —

1 - telling you to go home and experiment on your own. Start with learning how to boil water, etc.

2 - explaining the great importance of food to everyone on the planet (from health to socialization), demonstrating how eating various foods can change your mood, showing how different foods interrelate with each other, describing how the same food (e.g., a potato) can be prepared in numerous creative ways, illustrating how presentation impacts the experience to the diner, making clear the difference between a cook and a chef, etc., etc.

Today in almost all US K-12 schools, option #1 is what is happening regarding learning the Critical Thinking skill. Warren was opening the door to teaching a student how the Think Critically, using option #2. BIG DIFFERENCE!

So what happened? How was he rewarded for his interest and efforts in getting children to become much better thinkers — which means happier and more productive citizens (see here)?

He got fired!

After getting this stunning news, Warren puts out this short video, trying to make sense of this unexpected and irrational development.

What he doesn’t say is that his termination is not a surprise, as the US K-12 education system is formally opposed to teaching Critical Thinking. I’ve written about this multiple times, like here. The Science standards adopted by 49 statesactually teach the opposite of Critical Thinking — conformity and compliance.

Fortunately, this story may be headed towards a happy ending. As I tipped readers off at the beginning of this piece, this rather mundane K-12 situation hit the right cord, and suddenly Warren became somewhat of a celebrity. For example, there were some interesting interviews, like —

Piers Morgan Interviews Teacher Who Schooled Student to Think Critically,

Dave Rubin Interviews Warren Smith,

and several more, like this, this, this, etc.

I reached out to Warren and just made a connection. I look forward to communicating with him shortly. Some of the messages I will be conveying are:

1) he’s on the right track, so don’t be dissuaded by the anti-Americans who want to undermine our K-12 education system,

2) he should study what’s happening to K-12 Science standards, to get a better idea of the Big Picture and the purposeful attack on Critical Thinking,

3) he will find my Report on the Amazing Benefits of Critical Thinking to be very interesting,

4) there soon may be a fascinating job for him in North Carolina,

5) Etc.

Regarding #4, if enough citizens take the time to understand what the issues are, and who has what position, reform (GOP) candidate Michele Morrow will be the next Superintendent of the NC Department of Public Instruction.

Michele has told me that Warren is exactly the type of person she would seriously consider hiring after she wins the upcoming election, as she is a major supporter of NC K-12 students becoming Critical Thinkers. Warren’s assignment might be “to get the proper teaching of Critical Thinking formally incorporated into the K-12 Science curriculum.”

Top Priority —

Job #1 is to get Michele elected, so please make a generous donation for this courageous and competent woman. If you’d like to see her in action, please watch this debate with her Dem opponent, from last weekend.

Let’s be very clear: this is NOT just a North Carolina issue!

Michele winning would be a major shot across the bow to the entire US K-12 public school system that business as usual is no longer acceptable! This is arguably one of the top twenty most important races in the US!

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Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

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Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2024 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?

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