Teaching high school kids how to think and do research sometimes drives me to despair. Not because they don't get it, but because they generally do. And then I turn around and look at how "successful" thinkers in the Media and often even the Academy argue in public, and I have to wonder if I'm wasting my time. Maybe, after all, sloppy use of key terms, broad generalizations based on anecdotal and impressionistic "evidence," the profligrate employment of logical fallacies, and in short, shoddy reasoning that makes emotional appeals to key segments of your audience, is the way to make a name for yourself and grab your share of the world's approval and financial renumeration. Maybe I'm setting these kids up for failure by teaching them how to think and argue rationally.
