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Beware of attacking the "Critical Thinking" term appearing in a syllabus, because it appears in mine. Where are the teachers on this site? I am glad to read the postings, but we must consider that all the "student mentality" bashing is what alienates these kids from being open minded. Personally, I'm trying to get them to listen (because the read newspapers and watch TV and make decisions from those sources). I'm a teacher. Did you realize that they want to tape me too? When my students first "broke" this story in class, I hadn't heard it yet-- so I said, "let's talk about it." They had the facts all wrong, and were reacting to usual liberal confines: "free speech is being eradicated!" First a student said, "there was this teacher in California . . ." then the next one "he was fired for making a speech about not liking Bush." It didn't take long for me to find out the kids had the story wrong-- the wrong state for starters. So I said (you can quote me, though nobody was recording I think), "since you have the state wrong, I'm already questioning your reactions." Kids react quickly. Then they pass judgement and form "facts" as they see it. My only defense, and offense for that matter, is to say "think critically." I used this approach the following days in class when I brought in the text of Bennish's speech. "Look," I said, "thinking critically, I'm not sure I have grounds to fire this guy, but he definitely had a bad day. He'd be in my office if I were an administrator. I would want to know how often this happens." The reaction when I "cornered" the kids? One said, "well, maybe we'll record you some day." They could probably hang me too if they recorded only part of my lecture or comments. I don't feel for Bennish; but I feel for Bennish. Hope this makes sense.