I was recently told by a financial expert that it is more important to know what you don't know than it is to know what you do know. It reminded me of one of the education buzz words that was hot in our district for a year or two. The word was metacognition. We were informed that it was crucial that our students were aware of what they knew. There were posters all over the building about metacognating. I'm sure that the students enjoyed them. 
I looked the word up again just to make sure that I wasn't dreaming or lost in some horrible workshop in the Twilight Zone. Sure enough, dictionary.com had it.
Metacognition (n)
awareness and understanding one's thinking and cognitive processes; thinking about thinking
I'm not surprised that a recent poll showed that American voters want our schools to focus on critical thinking and problem solving.
July 7, 2003—A new organization called the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has issued a report and a free planning guide to help educators incorporate specific "21st-century" skills—such as problem solving, critical thinking, and communication—into the core curriculum of schools to better prepare students for today's technology-infused workplaces.
Of course, critical thinking and problem solving aren't new ideas. Teachers have been including critical thinking, reasonableness (another interesting word), and problem solving strategies in their instruction for a very long time now. Even those of us who went to school when just the basics were taught had our aha moments when we made connections and realized that we could use information in different ways.
I guess I'm wondering if teaching children to problem solve before they understand the basic concepts is causing more confusion. It reminds me of the old decision making process called "Rock, Paper, Scissors." Logically, I would think that a rock could beat both paper and scissors because it's hard. I always feel inadequate when playing this game because I just can't keep it straight in my head which object is going to win. Kids that learned how to play this without having to think about it have an advantage. Maybe it's important for students to get some basic skills under their belts before being forced to think critically about them. Should first graders be asked to think critically before learning to read? Some people think so. So much for logic.