"I'll never forget the day that she told our class that she was glad the curriculum had been changed so we were now reading Macbeth instead of Hamlet because she thought Hamlet was just a whiner and if he had just stopped whining and killed his uncle right away everyone would have been infinitely better off... and no, I'm not paraphrasing loosely... that was pretty much how she said it. Here was an English teacher actually criticizing a play by Shakespeare... this was simply novel to my 12th grade self. In her jesting she created an environment where we students were actually allowed to criticize what we were reading as long as we could back up our opinion, and that was infinitely more valuable to me in university than being told I should be "less creative."
Your teacher sounds wonderful! I valued my teachers that allowed criticism of the content with proper evidence for our opinions. The ability to criticize is at the heart of critical thinking. I am always amazed that students are supposed to be critical thinkers, but that this requirement and expectation stops short of criticism. The ability to critique the ideas of others is critical to engaging in meaningful discussion on a topic. The concept that content experts and creators are infallible gods stifles creativity in students and prevents many from adding their own quality thoughts and opinions to the discourse. This concept is also at the heart of the insecurity of many students that leads them to stay out of a great many conversations.
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