As a teacher (and now professor...what?!), the idea of constantly encouraging higher-level thinking is always at the front of my mind. We read about, think about, and talk about Bloom's taxonomy until it is sprouting out our ears. We stress the need to create critical thinkers. I constantly find myself saying things to students such as, "Dig a little deeper than that..." or "Let's put our problem-solving caps on..." or "Think of five different ways to answer this question with your group..." Yet... I feel like we are failing as a society to actually produce such thinkers. Yes, there are those who examine nearly everything, and most of us question the rare, novel, or shocking. But going about our daily lives, I feel that it is too common for people to read something, learn something (whatever the situation might be), and we accept our initial reaction to said information, make a quick evaluation of some kind, and move on. I've exper...