The Death Of Why

Download or read book The Death of "Why?" written by Andrea Batista Schlesinger and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2009-07-13 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Obsessed with answers, we have lost sight of the power and value of questions. Debates over globalization, climate change, health care, and poverty will not be “solved” with simple answers, but that's what Americans are being trained to expect. Andrea Batista Schlesinger argues that we're besieged by cultural forces that urge us to avoid critical thinking and independent analysis. The media reduces politics to a spectator sport, standardized tests teach students to fill in the dots instead of opening their minds, and even the Internet promotes habits that discourage looking deeper. But the situation isn't hopeless. Schlesinger profiles individuals and institutions renewing the practice of inquiry—particularly in America's youth—at a time when our society demands such activity from us all. Our resilience will depend on our ability to struggle with what we don't know, to live and think outside comfortable bubbles of sameness, and, ultimately, to ask questions.