Teaching to Think

"The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think.  It should be the primary purpose of our [public] schools.  The mind of a child is naturally active, it develops through exercise.  Give a child plenty of exercise, for body and brain.  The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind.  It casts the brain into a mold.  It insists that the child must accept.  It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation."

Thomas Edison