Critical Thinking* – one of LREI’s Four Cs (the others being Courage, Creativity, and Citizenship). I have been thinking about this particular “C” quite a bit lately. To be honest, I had been thinking about some other issues in the world that I find to be of great concern and grasping for some way to organize my thoughts and then…I walked into a ninth-grade English class and there it was. Critical Thinking! The students were discussing a short story they had read, one of a number on the docket this fall, examining it carefully, balancing the views of their classmates, of the teachers, their own thoughts and feelings and doing it all in a step-wise fashion. All elements of what I would call critical thinking.
Earlier this week I arrived at school a wee bit earlier than usual. I dropped my things in my office and headed down to the cafeteria to check in (which means to see what is for lunch) and to grab a cup of coffee. As I walked past the Early Bird (early drop off) room I heard the Early Bird teacher say, “X please don’t sit on the table.” X said, “Why?” I caught myself just as I was about to say, “Because I said so” with at least one exclamation point when the teacher responded, “Why do you think I am surprised by your answer?” X then had an opportunity to think about his answer, their relationship, his goals, what to do next time. Evidence, experience, expertise, reflection. An excellent teaching/learning moment with little reprimand and a lot of care, and the exercising of critical thought.
On any given day, if I were to wander the halls of the three divisions I would see many, many examples of students thinking, questioning, weighing evidence, and learning about the world and the ways it works, believing that evidence of what they can’t see or experience for themselves, evaluated with thought and care, with the expert input of learned people, can substitute for doing something themselves. This is an odd suggestion for me to write as I often extol the virtues of hands-on learning, of experience. We ask our students to think critically about what they read and learn in school. A young student might ask, “Why do I have to wash my hands when I arrive in the morning? I washed them before I left home.” “Good question,” I would respond, “and now let’s look at what we touch and encounter along the way and at the science and at the behavioral science related to hand washing.” These students will not do this research themselves but they can look at a broad body of knowledge and, after careful consideration, conclude that even though they can’t see the microbes lurking on subway poles, washing hands is a good idea. Agreed that one can become complacent and believe whatever one reads. However, we cannot always start at the beginning and do all of the work ourselves. It is just not practical. Part of our work preparing students to think critically is to keep their skills sharp and to not become too willing to believe without thinking – to find some happy medium between easy acceptance and unfounded cynicism.
Examining my own thinking, my observations about the critical thinkers in the building resonated as I thought about the latest report regarding global warming. While I know enough to understand that my personal observations of “too hot” summers and other changes from my questionable recollections of years gone by are not evidence of climate change. I also know too much to dismiss the scholarly scientific research that makes it fairly clear that humankind is changing our climate and that quick action is needed to slow the changes that are predicted for just a few years down the road. I have not performed the experiments, but if I think critically about the evidence presented I have to come out on the side of trusting the scientific community to exert a positive pressure on its members to produce good and true work. I had a similar internal conversation as I thought about outbreaks of childhood diseases. To my moderately informed mind, the evidence seems clear, and the evidence to the contrary seems sparse and less well examined — vaccines save lives, those of the infected and those of others who they come into contact with. Yet, there is an ongoing conversation about the efficacy of vaccines and the dangers that some suggest they pose. How can we work with our students to critically examine evidence and to learn when to trust others to perform the research and when they must do this for themselves?
So I go back to my trip through the classrooms, comforted by the many opportunities that our children have to practice and examine the skills of the critic, learning how to discern whether to believe or question or a little bit of both, preparing for their increasingly independent lives in our increasingly complex world where the ideal of truth and science and evidence and thought and learning seem under ever greater attack.
*LREI defines Critical Thinking as the ability to discern patterns, challenge assumptions, and be open to a variety of ideas and perspectives. A critical thinker looks at details and also sees the big picture and is able to travel multiple paths to a solution.
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I wrote the note above prior to the events of the past couple of days. Scary stuff. Rest assured that throughout the day we are focused on your children’s safety and are evaluating the situation in the City as we have new information.
Yesterday the high school had an assembly led by an 11th/12th-grade history elective focused on the election process, this year and in general. The students created a program that discussed the importance of mid-term elections, the roles of the legislative bodies in both national and local governance, issues specific to particular races as examples of the national conversation, and the tools used in political advertising and campaigns. Their observations were thoughtful and interesting. While the students’ opinions leaked into their comments from time to time, they worked hard to be non-partisan and to encourage their schoolmates to be involved, to listen, to learn and to make thoughtful political decisions. Above all, there was a sense that discourse, no matter how impassioned, is essential. At some point, we will learn the facts behind the bombs that have been sent to various people and institutions this week. My hope is that our students can lead informed, impassioned discourse in their communities as an antidote to intolerance, ignorance, and violence.