Education experts agree: critical thinking is an essential skill for today’s students. But to instill this ability in our children, we can’t abandon tools that are proven effective.

Traditional education approaches focus on producing competent teachers, serious content, and rigour from children. But these ideas have fallen out of fashion. So-called “student-centred” methods imagine that critical thinking can be produced in isolation, without the difficult task of acquiring knowledge.

Repeating facts to memory might not always be fun, but teachers have traditionally made students learn this way for a reason: it works. As we seek to improve the lot of the coming generation, reintroducing tried and true teaching methods must be a strong priority.