Critical Thinking: The Paradox of a Largely Neglected Universal Educational Goal

You are driving down a road, staying on a particular side of that road. Everyone on the road has made a similar commitment. They want to be on that road.

Suddenly one driver exits their car and heads over a hill to the left. Now something very strange happens. Everyone gets out of their car and heads to the left apparently signaling that this Pied Piper knows best where to head.

If there were a contest for what educational objective is most often mentioned in educational promotional activities, “critical thinking” would probably be the gold medalist. Schools at all levels, business leaders, and teachers swear their loyalty to pursuing “critical thinking.” However, except for a few courses in philosophy, the visible curriculum contains no explicit training in critical thinking.

And those “critical thinking” courses are usually logic courses that are more akin to the certitude of training in calculus than the rough and tumble complexity of practical informal logic.

How can a universal goal be assigned so little space in educational ventures?  Why is there no Department of Critical Thinking populated by students required to practice the attitudes and skills of critical thinking.

I have often been asked when consulting with universities, corporations and government agencies, “Where can I send my sons and daughters to a school that emphasizes critical thinking by explicitly teaching it?” I do not know what to say. The best I can do is point out that most schools have some excellent courses in statistics. In addition, there are some parallels between the scientific method and critical thinking. Consequently, science programs often provide the closest thing to critical thinking that schools offer.

I am curious how you would explain the paradox of expressions of affection for critical thinking side by side with widespread neglect of training in critical thinking. The best I can do is a phrase often used in analyses of failures of the human community to address environmental decay. Everyone’s business often becomes no one’s business. In other words, Because the environment is so fragile and universally significant to our way of living, there is no need for me to be paying attention to its problems for others will surely be on duty guarding its integrity.

To be a teacher is to have multiple pressures and responsibilities. Peer reviews, students with different learning capabilities, research expectations in our most acclaimed universities, grading responsibilities, and loyalty to our individual specialties combine to leave little room for anything other than a laser focus on the specific curriculum of existing specialties. In short, teachers are busy and they have little remaining time to teach anything else.

By the way, never suggest to a university professor that they rarely teach critical thinking.  They will aggressively insist that the accusation is false. In fairness, any teacher occasionally does things that fit in a critical thinking framework. But I must wonder how many of them would like to see their pedagogy judged by how well their students perform on the Watson Glaser Test of Critical Thinking or the California Test of Critical Thinking?