Sorry again folks. This phone is really prone to converting being picked up into instructions and on Mudcat that becomes "post a blank message."

Pete and Donuel are saying related things I think. Facts are pretty dull and useless things; a date of a battle, the number and groupings of participants, the outcome. To get beyond a "shopping list" you need to move beyond the strictly factual into the interpretation: why was the battle on that date, why were there that number of participants, did the battle have a long term effect.... these interpretations are affected by belief systems in the widest sense. A particular interpretation will "feel right" for example. So a proper education, in my book, is about teaching habits and skills of discernment, critical thinking and lifelong learning, with facts as important but very much in second place.

However, to be good consumers those are not desirable. Businesses are not really that keen on our asking ourselves if we really need that new car, or whether paying extra for a certain brand is a good idea. Ditto politicians don't really like us thinking critically about their statements. So we end up with an education system that focuses on the sort of fact that is easily testable rather than something nuanced. And consequently with voters that may react to politicians based on "feelings" rather than "facts".

And I don't think any of us are immune to this. Andrea Leadsom, for example, had an especial ability to annoy me with her smugness and shallow answers during the Brexit campaign.   She could have easily influenced me to vote against her.