When else?
Posted on: June 3, 2021
Today I build on my reflection yesterday on how to encourage systemic thinking by teaching learners to ask “What else?“.
I listened to a podcast interview by Conan O’Brien of former US President Barack Obama. Towards the end of the interview, both explored a theme that started with this quote (54min mark):
…if we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will… be between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ignorance, and ambition on the other.
In the context of the US political system, the quote could have been from a pundit or scholar on a news talk show yesterday. But it was by Ulysses S Grant in 1875.
Obama then described we how tend to pay attention only to what is immediately in front of us. If you asked me, I would say that we deal with the urgent and forget what is important.
Both men were trying to say how important it is to study and learn from history. The problems we face now are not new; they are just different.
So if we are to nurture critical thinkers who think systemically, another powerful question they might ask is: When else?
Another dot in the blogosphere? 
Leave a Reply