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Peter Lovenheim’s recent Beacon essay (“Don’t believe everything you think”) on the importance of having U.S. citizens critically re-think their positions and decisions is critically important to America’s current political crisis and leaves us with several important problems to solve, if indeed, we really want more critical thinking by all citizens.
Donald Trump has won a second presidential election with bitterness and divisiveness persisting between the almost equally divided one hundred and forty million Republican and Democrat supporters. In many cases, one group, and sometimes both, have demonstrated conspiratorial, non-factual, emotional arguments about election fraud and issues such as criminal justice, abortion, education, racism, climate change and medical care. Some demonstrators at recent protests have even acted on their political views with rage and violent, destructive acts. Even visions of a civil war are discussed through the media. Though I am a life-long, progressive democrat, I would be satisfied if supporters of both political parties would demonstrate that they are thinking more critically about candidates, issues and actions, and less emotionally and factually.
Critical thinking is a term often used in the education profession to describe a skill set desired for all students to develop, in order to become responsible citizens. However, it’s a nebulous term, that is often not clearly defined, assessed or demonstrated by students, nor focused upon by teachers, administrators and education policy-makers, despite its crucial importance. If critical thinking was more clearly defined, and student demonstrations of their proficiency were required in schools, perhaps there would eventually be more focus on key issues by voters and candidates, and debates would be more intellectual and factual. Imagine, for a moment, if all students were required each year to demonstrate their growth and development in critical thinking by presenting a portfolio of their best examples of critical thinking through projects, research, class activity work, personal reflections, teacher comments and self-assessments to a committee of teachers, peers and professional community members, who would ask each student about their work, effort and critical thinking development. The committee could use a rating scale focusing on student examples of:
- Discerning fact vs. opinion,
- Using multiple sources from a variety of perspectives to form conclusions,
- Asking higher-level thinking questions,
- Listening and responding reflectively,
- Empathizing with another’s point of view,
- Designing creative, responsible solutions for societal and interpersonal problems, and
- Applying and presenting their thinking and solutions to real-world and unpredictable issues, such as climate change, racial inequities and pandemics, to local governmental officials.
Successful completion of this assessment process could be a requirement for graduation.
Though this proposal may be seen as radical and too difficult to implement, it is not. A similar form of this process is currently used by 35 schools, which are members of the New York State Performance Standards Consortium, and requires a demonstration of critical thinking in each subject area by each student for graduation.
If every high school graduate was able to develop and exhibit these skills, would we not expect to see more harmonious, productive debates among citizens and political candidates in the future? Would another Charlottesville or January 6th be less conceivable? Would we have fewer concerns about the protection and longevity of our Constitution and Democracy? Isn’t it time for the New York State Board of Regents, New York State School Boards, Superintendents, teachers, parents and students to think critically about this proposal?
Postscript: The NYS Board of Regents recently approved a proposal for a “Profile of a Graduate,” that stresses critical thinking by all students. Perhaps, if the Board of regents is held accountable, this profound decision will become a reality in NYS and set an example of what “good citizenship” and patriotism is for all of the United States.
Dan Drmacich
Rochester Coalition for Public Education coordinator and retired School Without Walls principal
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
Just imagine how the business community as represented by the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce could bring to life many of Mr. Drmacich’s suggestions with special attention on the students of the Rochester City School District (RCSD), the largest school district in the area.
The business community should be much more engaged by looking at the ~20k RCSD students with greater intentionality and focus vs. virtually ignoring its decades old plight that has been well documented and continuing.
Perhaps the Chamber could uitilize its important voice, business acumen, and numerous resources by looking at these students as an ever-present base of potential employees, customers, entrepreneurs, contributors to society and the economy, etc., etc. …. as well as critical thinkers.
I agree, Bill. Critical thinking would be of immense value to businesses, our government, our families and our society. Imagine a society where empathy, slepticism and compassionate action vs. control, obiedence and passivity were valued.
I agree wholeheartedly with the goal of the author. I’d also be interested in where the 35 schools are located. In my experience, far too many students throughout the state graduate without the basic required competencies that the Regents and State Education Department require, let alone critical thinking skills.
Now, with the new national administration taking steps to further defund and dumb down education even further, it’s unlikely that any substantive improvement in student performance will be forthcoming.
As a former educator both in public schools and managing a technical training department I have for decades advocated for continuous and rigorous civics education from pre-school through graduation. How can we expect young people to become participatory citizens if they have no foundation in understanding our history and form of governance.
We are also facing, unprecedented challenges with AI, Chat Bots, social media and short attention spans of many students. Further the mental health crisis and current volatile political environment seem to be setting up a generation of nihilistic despondent potentially suicidal students that need a strong dose of optimism and adult mentorship, and easier access to competent, human mental health support. I’d love to hear more people weigh in on just how we would go about implementation of these ideas, especially in the Rochester City School District.
Dear Frank, The NYS Performance Standards Consortium Schools I mentioned in my essay are primarily in New York City, with one in Ithaca and the other in Rochester (School Without Walls.) I agree that the defunding of the U.S. Department of Education, by Trump, will do much more harm than good. However, there is a silver lining in that Congress may de-couple the mandate for ESSA funding (which supports an important amount of funding for low socio-economic and special education student needs) with the requirement for all states to use high-stakes standardized tests in order to recieve those funds. High-stakes standardized tests, which are primarily based upon memorization & lower-level thinking skills, coerce teachers to “teach-to-the-test,” and essentially de-emphasize critical-thinking skills. And, I agree that more folks ought to weigh-in on these issues; particularly those who have been elected or appointed.
I just heard one of the commentators on Morning Joe mention that recent college graduates are unable to find work. In many cases, they opine that corporations are embracing AI and simply reducing headcount through attrition. Highly educated graduates, burdened by debt, don’t have as many options as prior generations, regardless of the skills they possess. Since AI and cryptocurrency investments appear to be, at least in some industries and on Wall Street, “the driving force ,” unless someone is an accomplished mathematician or writes algorithms, one big question remains: how will our academic institutions, elected officials, and the tech industry all come together to cope with this world-altering phenomenon? Of course, there will always be a need for as many citizens as possible to be able to think critically just to participate in our democracy, but as education paradigms are very slow to change or adapt, how will all this change in technology be addressed in time to ensure that the next cohort of graduates is poised to meet the challenges ahead?
The rub is how do you get somehow who doesn’t think critically to even imagine they should think critically?
We have started down the path to an Idiocracy, the only hope is that it gets so bad that Canada, in an act of self defence conquers the US, returns her to the Crown, and sets her straight.
Dear Gary, Your question of how to motivate non-critical thinkers to think critically about the need for more critical-thinking is, indeed critical, especially if we hope to have it become a significant part of public school curriculum, standards & assessment. Part of the answer to your question is that over the past 25 years significant pilot schools & their accompanying research has finally had a significant impact on the NYS Board of Regents and the NYSED Commissioner to the point that they created a diverse Blue Ribbon Committee to investigate the “right questions” about what school/classroom conditions are necessary to intrinsically motivate K-12 students to meaningfully engage, grow & develop in the skills & content and demonstrate satisfactory proficiency. After 2 years of investigation by this committee, it presented its findings to the Commissioner & the Board of Regents, stressing the need for more focus on higher-level thinking skills, more flexibility with curriculum & content, and more options for assessing student proficiency. The Blue Ribbon Committee’s proposals were unanimously approved by the Board of Regents, who are finally recognizing that student engagement and success is dependent upon meeting student psychological human needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence. The NYSED has also approved the development and implementation of 50 state-wide voluntary Pilot schools to become models for the approximately 700 local NYS school districts. So…fortnunately, this rather “top-down” educational decision is following the research and methodically implementing some workable plans to encourage more critical and creative thinking. But, the NYSED must remain consistent and persistent with this application. which will require a new “mind-set” of what meaningful teaching, learning and assessment is all about. This initiative will require paitence and effective professional development for all NYS public school teachers, administrators and policy-makers.
The cognitive skill of critical thinking is important and could be better taught and assessed. The domains of affect regulation and moral judgment are equally important. These three domains sometimes get incorporated of SEL, social emotional learning.
The current problem in American society is not only with the poor level of rational thinking but the emotional and moral gullibility of a large percentage of American voters.
Some pedogeological models focuses on intelligence and overlook emotional and spiritual intelligence. The low level so spiritual intelligence may be the basis of our current state of consciousness and not the poor rational thinking processes.
As a former principal of the school of the arts what do you think of the importance of the arts in emotional and spiritual education?
Dear David,
Your question regarding the need for making social-emotional control and moral reasoning an important ingrediant for student development is, in my opinion, a vital part of “critical-thinking.” I believe both should absolutely be included in all learning activities that focus on social, political, scientific and even historical issues in classrooms. Rather than ignoring students’ thoughts, feelings and values regarding peer-related and “top-down” enforced content, teachers should, in my opinion, be asking students to to respond to questions, such as:
– How many of you have some strong feelings regarding this issue?
– How many of you are not sure about what could be done to solve this issue?
– How many of you think that we should always follow the law, regardless of the isssue?
– How many of you think the solution we just read about is fair & just?
Teaching students how to listen actively and ask questions that are “clarifying” vs. judgemental, before having them discuss their opinions in small groups would also be useful for their development. And, follow-up activities encouraging students to express their final conclusions artistically & responding to teacher & student questions should also be encouraged. Taking and using student perspectives to facilitate greater student introspection and critical thinking would not only encorage greater student engagement & development, but also create greater trust and positive relationships among peers and their teacher.
if one is to follow the tenets of critical thinking, “feelings’ are irrelevant, and fair and just are subjective.
Emotions and subjectivity are anathema to the concept.
Dan,
Theoretically, your proposed “assessment process” sounds good (sort of). I mean, even theoretically, it’s somewhat complex. In any case, how would it be possible to successfully implement the proposal, especially within urban school districts, such as the RCSD – in the face of the following reality: https://13wham.com/news/local/assessments-find-more-than-40-of-rcsd-k-8-students-3-levels-behind-in-reading-math ?
Until and unless the foundation is laid, i.e., mastering the basics (reading, writing and math knowledge and skills, at or above grade level – all along the way) – the rest is unrealistic at best.
https://www.facebook.com/News10NBC/posts/fewer-than-15-of-3rd-graders-in-the-rochester-city-school-district-are-reading-a/1152243156943665/
Howard, right on target. Again.
Hi Howard! I agree that all students need to gain comprensive reading, writing and math skills, if they are to experience a wider variety of learning experiences that facilitate their growth & development in critical thinking skills, asn well as provide more concrete evidence of their development. However, there are other teaching and learning activities that all students, including pre-K and elementary-level students, can experience which can lead to more critical thinking development. These include the use of film or theater depicting moral dilemmas for which students can orally suggest alternative solutions, as well as advantages & disadvantages, and asking students to choose their best solution, with reasons. Teacher-read stories & law-related, case-studies, following a similar procedure, also works. Classroom conflict incidents or role-plays, to help students think about possible solutions and consequences also works, as well as having students evaluate artistic paintings or sculpture, using criteria both students and teachers agree upon, all foster critical thinking skills, and can be used to stimulate reading, writing and math development, as well. To assess student development in critical thinking would be more difficult, but not impossible. Teacher narratives, photos of student art work, videos of student responses could be part of each student’s portfolio aqnd could be reviewed with the student and parent. Perhaps, what’s most important, is that holding teachers & students accountable for some kind of demonstration of their critical-thinking proficiencey would encourage teachers to create more activities that would be thought-provoking, stimulating and enjoyable for students to experience & look forward to at school.
You pose this as a “both sides” issue and no doubt there is SOME exaggeration and misinformation on the left the overwhelming majority of misinformation comes directly from the right and it’s leadership. From health misinformation to immigration to LGBTQ and literally everything that comes out of today’s right wing propaganda machine, the place critical thinking is most needed is in the MAGA cult. I use a news curation service ( ground.news ) which presents all sides of an issue and rates stories based on bias and factuality. If you truly are interested in critical thinking turn off all television and video news and talking heads. Read your news. And use a curation service that shows you facts vs bias. But overwhelmingly if you get your news from right wing sources be aware that they aren’t just biased. They have perfected the art of lying to your face.