During elementary school we learn to reason quantitatively in fundamental ways. One of the concepts that we learn along the way is that of proportions. We are taught to express a value that is greater than another either in terms of multiplication (e.g., “The value of A is three times the value of B”), as […]

During my many years of teaching, I have often been surprised to discover a lack of essential thinking and communication skills among the educated. Back when I was in graduate school in Berkeley studying religion from a social science perspective, I taught a religious studies course to undergraduate students at San Jose State University. When […]

Like it or not, we rely heavily on experts to function as a society. Expertise—high levels of knowledge and skill in particular realms—fuels human progress and continues to maintain it. For this reason, it is frightening to observe the ways in which expertise has been devalued in the modern world, nowhere more so than in […]