I wish that the Canadian Public school system would teach philosophy and logic at a younger age...  Touching on it briefly in grade 12 doesn't count.  It sure would be nice if the people that I pick fights with had the same tools that I do.  I guess I wouldn't be able to so thoroughly trounce and browbeat my opponents if that were the case.  

Okay, maybe we should keep things the way they are...     

But still...   I find it hard to believe that children are taught the mechanics of everything (including sex) in public schools by the time they're 13, and yet so many people graduate without the ability to detect one single logical fallacy.  I know I did.  Couldn't even put together a syllogism. Wasn't until second year university before I was taught HOW to discover if an argument was valid or not.  And if you couldn't agree on the premises or if the premises were complicated and unclear all that was left was yelling louder or finding a way to discredit your opponent (which does NOT discredit his or her argument, regardless of what TV would have us believe) or change the argument by introducing another layer of complexity rather than trying to work together to simplify the points and check for validity.  I guess I'm just venting because I've just had another argument with someone that seems to think that a correlation has the same power over an effect as a sufficient cause would.  But without that false equation I guess all our sociology and statistic behavior analysis wouldn't seem as impressive.