John Battelle's common sense advice

John Battelle has provided the MacArthur Foundation, at their request, with a sensible suggestion for a philanthropic investment.

"In an age where the knowledge of mankind is increasingly at our fingertips through the services of Internet search, we must teach our children critical thinking. One can never have all the answers, but if prepared, one can always ask the right question, and from that creative act, learn to find his or her own answer.

Instead, we have leaders that believe that questions have one answer, and they already know what it is. Their mission, then, is to evangelize that answer. That, to me, is a dangerous course. Reversing it by teaching our children to learn, rather than to answer, seems to me to be a noble cause.

I then later added:

Developing a framework in our schools for "search literacy" - how to use and think about using a search engine - might be just the kind of thing you could do with a modest investment...."