Something else that he said that jumped out at me was that anytime the question is already presented, that's not thinking.
CAMom, this really resonates with me. I really try to encourage that sort of deep thinking from dd4; I think kids are capable of a great deal more nuance and discernment than schools give them credit for. If one allows them the room to be intellectually curious, they are capable of thinking about the implication of things, and of, like you said, spotting problems. Anecdotal evidence that it's working for us -- we recently started reading SOTW, which has a lot of built-in questions in the narrative. I've noticed that half the time, by the time we get to the question, dd has already brought it up and either answered it or discussed it.
The same sort of thing happens with science -- when you follow the logical thread of things, you will come up with the next content (or at leas the question for the next content) before you actually read it. It's very cool to see.
Re your DS -- school (in general, of course there are exceptions) teaches kids to fall into the grade trap. What gets rewarded is good grades -- whether or not that involves learning or creative thinking. Grr.
