Education: Fill students' heads with facts, or aim for critical thinking?

In the same Guardian article I referred to in my last post, Climate change should be excluded from curriculum, says adviser, the UK education secretary Michael Gove is quoted criticizing the national curriculum under review:

"Its pages are littered with irrelevant material – mainly high-sounding aims, such as the requirement to 'challenge injustice', which are wonderful in politicians' speeches, but contribute nothing to helping students deepen their stock of knowledge."

I hardly know where to begin but worry for kids in the UK if someone who truly espouses such a viewpoint is able to exert any influence over the actual education of those kids.

First, studying injustice and how to challenge it can absolutely help students "deepen their stock of knowledge." During the investigation of injustice, students will uncover facts, theories, processes, phenomena, and methods which are all forms of knowledge.

Second, injustice is not "irrelevant material." It is a feature of our civilization which affects the lives and livelihoods of untold numbers of human beings, mostly non-white and non-European; this is especially so in the "developing world." Injustice is an effect of the way our world is socially, politically, and economically organized. It can be studied a primary cause of war, terrorism, and other forms of violence; more importantly, as a primary cause of economic inopporunity, poverty, and human suffering. I can hardly think of something more relevant for children in the UK to learn about.

Even if the concept of injustice was pruned to its most primitive meaning, there are plenty of instances to study of mere miscarriage of justice in the United Kingdom.

Third, should the aim of education be to "deepen" students' "stock of knowledge?" The dilemma Gove presents is challenging. Knowledge takes many forms, and so his premise is already weak. But inferring what he means—that students should be taught basic facts, rather than study complex multidimensional phenomena—suggests that he feels it's more important to fill kids' heads with bits of information.

Education should be a process that helps kids develop critical thinking skills, as well as a "stock of knowledge." The investigation of injustice is one excellent topic for such a process.