True critical thinkers observe their world and learn from it. Their goal is to see clearly and find understanding and happens to be one of the central goals of higher education.
Of course not everyone treats it this way. You may have had a professor who tested you on your rote skills—the ability to regurgitate whatever information you were spoon-fed throughout the semester. This is the easy way to teach and the model of education in various other cultures.
On the other hand, you may have experienced classes where the prof didn’t always give crystal clear instructions, where he purposefully left a degree of ambiguity in his assignments, and where he encouraged you to take a few chances, to go out on a limb, to try something new, to decide for yourself and take responsibility for your opinions. Maybe you hated that class. It frustrated you. You thought it ridiculous that this class—that you paid for—didn’t lay everything out clearly for you.
Would it change the way you feel if you knew that he was only trying to help you develop your own critical thinking skills? Expecting them of you? Hoping everyone would rise to his expectations and learn to expect the same of themselves?
Maybe you loved that class. You loved the absence of ridiculous limitations, you applied yourself and wrote the best paper of your student career. Maybe you’re the kind of person who watches people and things and learns continually. You want to understand things and you find yourself analyzing things around you and getting excited about new ideas. You are absorbed in your education, in exploring and discovering your world and yourself.
Critical thinkers get a few breaks in life. They tend to stay calmer in trials and difficulties—instead of seeing them as merely annoying problems, they become exciting challenges. They feel less defensive when criticized, because they’ve learned to consider others’ input and weigh it, deciding for themselves what to accept and what to disregard. They’re less likely to sit around and complain about a negative situation, because they’ve already accepted the inevitable and are busy looking for solutions. They are less likely to make mistakes, because they’ve learned from those they already made or witnessed other people make. When they do err, however, they’re less likely to condemn themselves and feel shame or guilt, and more likely to get on with their lives with a positive attitude. Critical thinkers get more from life.
These breaks come with a price tag, of course. It takes a little effort to develop these critical thinking skills. It takes discipline and determination to start seeing problems as exciting challenges, but you can do it. It takes a little effort to keep your mind from wandering when thinking over any new idea, but it’s worth it. In the end, paying the price to become a critical thinker sounds something like paying a dollar for a lottery ticket that has already been drawn as the winner.
The television generation faces a few extra challenges on the road to becoming critical thinkers. We’ve grown accustomed to constant entertainment. Most people act as if the world has an obligation to keep their interest if they want it—that they have no responsibility to pay attention themselves. They’ve learned from prime time shows that any problem can be resolved in half an hour, minus commercials. If it takes longer than this, we simply change the channel. But while our culture has changed, the world has not. Solving problems and gathering wisdom and understanding still take time and effort, and life will not feel as significant and joyful without these things.
Most of you probably know this already. You’ve probably had times when you really got your brain moving, and it felt good! You had a hard time turning it off as ideas just poured in. How would it feel to live in a constant state of such awakeness and awareness? A lazy person might be annoyed by it, but if you learn to love learning, you’d have it made.
Some people are afraid of thinking too much. They’re afraid of over-analyzing everything and being a geek. If they had moved a step or two past fear, they might have realized that the very fact that they had this fear showed that they would continue to be aware and avoid becoming what they didn’t want to. Rather than becoming a geek, they played the fool.
Perhaps the best thing that critical thinking gives you is the power of choice. A critical thinker doesn’t have to excuse her actions with the trite phrase "that’s just the way I am" because even though many shaping forces have a staggering effect on who and what we become, she knows that her own decisions ultimately determine her fate. She refuses to be pavlov’s dog. She deliberately takes control of her attitudes and actions. She knows she can find an answer to every question and a solution to every problem, even if it’s not one she had hoped for.
Assignment
In order to practice critical thinking skills in class, each student will
bring one quote and at least five critical thinking questions. Your quote
may regard some important issue or just be something inspiring. Your questions
will break it down and consider the truth or value of individual parts.
Using your questions, you will lead a discussion (5-10 minutes), letting
the class think and respond most of the time rather than giving a speech.
Don’t rush along. If you ask a good question, allow the class time
to think about it and develop a response. At the conclusion of your discussion,
everyone should have a deeper understanding of the topic and see applications
to their own lives. Give me (or e-mail me) a copy of your quote and questions.
Choose to think! Choose the examined life!
Assignment Examples
Quote: "Life is an exciting adventure, or it is nothing."
--Hellen Keller
Example Questions:
1. What parts of life do you consider an exciting adventure, and which parts
do you not?
2. Can you change this?
3. Do you know people who think almost all of their life is an exciting
adventure, or people who think none of it is? Are they right or wrong?
4. What difference does/would this attitude make in your life? Would it
most affect you or people around you?
5. What does Keller mean when she says the unexciting-adventurous life is
nothing?
Quote: "Far better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious
triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those
poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in
the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." --Theodore
Rosevelt
Example Questions:
1. Are you afraid of failure? How does fear of failure affect your decisions
and risks?
2. Are you afraid of success? Can you explain why some people are or give
examples?
3. Do you know any examples of great successes that took lots of failure
to get there?
4. What do you want to do that may require many failures before you succeed?
5. Is it ever best to give up on something you want? How do you know when
to quit and when to not?
Quote: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not, nothing is more common that unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not,the
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent." --Calvin Coolidge
Example Questions:
1. What are you persistent at? What are you not?
2. Why? What makes the difference? (Desire, confidence?)
3. What have you accomplished through persistence?
4. What do you want to accomplish that will take persistence?
5. Are you afraid of persistence? Do you want everything to be easy? How
does your way of thinking affect your life?
And one more quote:
Three Rules for Success:
1. Start Now.
2. Do it Flamboyantly.
3. No Exceptions.
--William James (modified)