Don’t Be Afraid Of The Critical Part of Critical Thinking

The critical part of critical thinking makes a lot of grown-ups cringe. Critical conjures up images of nit-pickiness over trivial stuff. Being critical of something seems to carry with it a bit of meanness, maybe even shallowness. Why on earth would we want to teach and encourage all of that in our kids?

Well, the critical part of critical thinking is woefully misunderstood, and in dodging it, we miss out on all kinds of good stuff.

Just for the record, critical thinking is not:

·        Pulling things apart just for the sake of pulling them apart.

·        Going out of our way to look for flaws in what others think and say.

·        Being unnecessarily negative about everything.

·        Boring and technical.

Critical thinking is:

·        Looking beneath the surface of things, beyond what’s obvious.

·        Finding more objective, stable reasons to accept ideas.

·        Considering a variety of viewpoints and perspectives before accepting or rejecting them.

·        Being curious about possibilities.

·        Taking a playful, experimental approach to thinking.

·        Finding ideas that work together, instead of against each other.

·        Not hesitating to ask “why” and to explore ideas with others.

Perhaps when we shy away from teaching critical thinking to our kids, it’s because we’re seeing it through the smoggy lenses of our grown-up definition. We’re so afraid of our kids not trusting us, talking back to us, and being unhappily skeptical about everything that we forget what it feels like for a little thinker to be critical. For a child, critical thinking is an exploration, a collaboration, and even an adventure. It helps them to feel like they are participants in conversations, and that their ideas and feelings matter. It’s empowering and enriching, and it can be done with kindness and humility.

Teaching a child to think critically, or rather, to help them build on the impulses and inclinations they already have, is probably one of the most important things a grown-up can do. Just as it’s never too late to learn, it’s never too early.