Thinking Critically About So-Called Critical Thinking

The goal of education has always been to achieve critical thinking.

Needless to say, this involves a two-step process: first, students learn a lot about a topic, whether in history, science or art; then they learn to arrange the information in new ways, to set one fact against another, to discover original insights about this knowledge.

Not anymore. Today´s educators don´t bother with the first part. They jump directly to step two. In this scenario, students who know nothing are expected to talk intelligently about it. Imagine the depth.

Having just heard about X, could you discuss X? For example, the Ottoman Empire, its rise and fall? If you are like me, you know nothing about this complex subject. We will seem completely goofy if we try to discuss it. Talk about low self-esteem! Try chatting about the Ottoman Empire when you know nothing about it.

Far from empowering our students, this upside-down approach just makes them feel foolish and inadequate.

Today´s educators have many obtuse dogmas, perhaps the chief of which is that students need not memorize (that is, know) anything. Everyone must have an empty head. But that´s not bad enough. Then the educators want to add charade on top of ignorance. Students are supposed to engage in deep and meaningful thinking about all the things they don´t know. The new goal is "thinking without knowing."

My impression is that our educators disdain basics and academics equally. But this nihilistic attitude might seem somewhat difficult to defend, even in ed circles. So they airbrush on a whole layer of lies and distractions; they add a cover-up....Look, parents, at all the critical thinking! The creative thinking!! Your children are so much more advanced now. Without all that silly knowledge stuff, today´s student can soar! They can see new things, things that no one saw before, because their vision is not obscured by stupid old facts.

Sure, I´m being a little satiric. I know you want to ask, What´s the point? Because you and I know that our educators are immune to satire. These are people who tell ignorant students that the class will now engage in critical thinking, and then they stand there and pretend that it is happening. Shazam!

I want to sketch (if only for parents and children) what should be standard operating procedure. Starting in the first grade, students learn the basics in each subject. This foundation is added to in the second grade, and the third grade, and the fourth grade, and the fifth grade. As children enter middle school, more reflection is appropriate. Teachers ask questions that encourage students to analyze, to compare and contrast. Meanwhile, more and more facts are learned. At this point we can honestly say that children are engaged in critical thinking. The goal, as they move closer to college, is to engage in more sophisticated critical thinking. Students will know what they are doing. If they are genuinely engaged in critical thinking, they will be proud of themselves. They will want to do more.

But if the so-called critical thinking is a game whereby schools place camouflage over the ignorance of the student body, the students will know this and they will feel belittled.

Footnote: Sham "critical thinking" is especially rampant in Reform Math. The gimmick is that children who can´t do simple arithmetic are learning "to think critically about math." For more on this topic, please see "36: The Assault On Math" on Improve-Education.org.