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Should Critical Thinking Be Taught In Schools

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"The objective of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives" as told by Robert Maynard Hutchins, an American educational philosopher. The American academic system is very different from those in other countries. That is among the many reasons why our public K-12 schools are under such an oppressive curriculum. In an effort to embark on this undertaking it is necessary to at first assess the curriculum as presented within the K-12 school system. The K-12 educators are held to certain expectations. In K-5 the instructor is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring children leave elementary schools with the basic knowledge and social skills necessary to the next level in their education. During this time, children are thinking a lot more critically than those of an older age, because as bell hooks has said "children are predisposed critical thinkers" which I think to be unquestionably true. Children are always finding new ways to …show more content…

Critical Thinking is interpreted as actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information based on observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication (National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking 1987). I believe that critical thinking opens the mind and ensures you to see things in unfamiliar ways. It creates a creative mindset and can lead to many accomplishments in the future if you master these skills while you are young. Children are already naturally critical thinkers; therefore, teachers should assist children in honing these skills and use them constructively. I infer that if we took an initiative to teach critical thinking at a young age and have it consistently taught all the way until the end of high school, more children would leave the K-12 system more prepared for higher education

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