Critical Thinking Everywhere

If critical thinking is so good for people why don’t every educational institution offer mandatory or at least optional courses on this topic? I can find several reasons. Let’s start with the fact that not every person knows about critical thinking. So if teachers and administration of an institution don’t know, they can’t introduce such a course.

Also some institutions can have conflicting agenda and courses. For example if an institution wants to promote compliance to authority, obedience, and all-or-nothing thinking, it surely doesn’t need any open-mindedness that may appear from learning critical thinking. And if an institution teaches subjects like astrology, there will be a conflict between discipline like this and critical thinking, because astrology doesn’t encourage doubt about its premises, which can be challenged by a critical thinking person.

Some people may think that they have other priorities, for examples in regions with low income and high unemployment rate. Basically they may decide they don’t need any complicated thinking methods is they don’t even have enough food and health care. And these people may be correct, but I also think that this issue can be studied more closely, because increasing critical thinking level may still help.

Even if people know about critical thinking and they have means to introduce courses like this they may want to be traditionalist just because old ways worked so far. Actually people may use a number of cognitive biases and logical errors to support their existing way of life. People may even know about critical thinking and may have means to run a course, but they may believe that it isn’t their responsibility to teach this topic.

Imagine a programmers school. Teachers in this school may believe that students should deal with their thinking processes themselves and if they can’t they should find help elsewhere. It may be true for many institutions, their administration just expects students to be smart and disciplined enough to understand if they have any problems with their thinking abilities. After spotting problems students should find solutions themselves.

Still I know a way to introduce critical thinking in new places and social groups, but it requires a person who is a critical thinker. This person can show how does it work through an example so others would believe what they see and experience.