Helping Children Grow Up Stronger With Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking skills are the ability to think about information and use it in a logical way.  There is a lot of evidence that points to how critical thinking skills can help children grow up stronger. Teaching these skills at an early age can help children develop more positive behaviors and become better learners.  Critical thinking skills are important because they allow a person to have the ability to make decisions for themselves and not rely on others’ opinions. For example, if someone is trying to convince you that something is true, but you know it’s false, then you can use your critical thinking skills to evaluate their argument and come up with a rebuttal.  Therefore, teaching children critical thinking skills will allow them to become independent thinkers in life so they will be able to think critically about what they believe in and what they want out of life without relying on others’ opinions to tell them who they are or what they should be in life.  It is well known that many school guidance counselors have dissuaded students from pursuing careers in which they were really interested.  Critical thinking skills are essential for a child’s development. It is important to teach them at an early age so they can learn how to think critically and make good decisions for themselves.

Critical thinking skills are taught at school, but parents should also teach their children at home. Parents can set good examples and teach their children how to think in a more analytical and logical way where critical thinking skills are used in many everyday situations such as deciding which clothes they want to wear or what they want to eat or which movie to watch, oftentimes encouraging opportunities for debate and discussion to learn critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking skills are an important part of human development. Schools teach children critical thinking skills by teaching them how to ask questions, make connections between ideas, and solve problems.  These skills help us to see the difference between facts and opinions, and they allow us to evaluate the quality of evidence for our own beliefs.  For example, analyzing an issue from multiple perspectives and subjecting it to intense scrutiny. It requires that we carefully examine assumptions, question our own beliefs, and recognize when we might be biased.  Critical thinking is a way of thinking that helps us to identify the components of a problem and find different solutions.  Critical thinkers are not afraid to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and think creatively. Critical thinkers use all their senses when they gather information, they ask questions, and they analyze what they find.

Some schools have started teaching critical thinking skills through project-based learning.  Critical thinking utilizes a set of mental processes that includes reasoning, problem solving, decision making, and verbal expression. The ability to think critically is very important in an education setting. Critical thinking skills are taught and practiced within the context of a school curriculum. In a K-12 curriculum, students are expected to learn how to problem solve and make decisions. Students are then required to possess the skills needed for critical thinking as they progress in their education. 

The main components of critical thinking are understanding, analysis, reasoning evaluation, synthesis, and communication.

• Understanding: Read the primary and secondary material and make sense of it.
• Analysis: The process of breaking down information into parts, looking for patterns and inconsistencies, and drawing conclusions from these observations.
• Reasoning: The process of applying logic to come up with a conclusion.
• Evaluation: The process of determining whether an idea or argument is valid or not.
• Synthesis: The process of putting together separate ideas from the text, question, or case to form a new idea or concept representative of real life.
• Communication : The ability to convey thoughts, ideas and arguments in an understandable way and share your ideas and thoughts with the other people in class.

Many parents and teachers are concerned about the lack of critical thinking skills that children are acquiring in schools. The lack of critical thinking skills can lead to poor grades, a low sense of self-worth, and a lack of confidence.

In the United States, the school system has been criticized for not teaching children critical thinking skills. In some schools in underserved communities, students are not taught how to think critically and are instead just given information to memorize.  It is important to note that many students in underprivileged areas are not given the same opportunities as their peers in more affluent areas. This includes access to the same quality of education, resources, and teachers.  The reality is that many students in underserved communities are not being taught critical thinking skills. In some cases, this may be because teachers lack the proper training and resources to teach these skills effectively. Teachers may also be limited by the curriculum they are instructed to follow. For example, if a teacher is following an outdated curriculum that does not include critical thinking skills, then it would make sense for them not to teach these skills even if they had the opportunity or means to do so. 

The school system needs to be reformed so that critical thinking skills are taught early on in a child’s life. Schools in the Massachusetts 2nd Suffolk District should be held accountable for teaching these skills and should provide the necessary resources for this to happen.  Vote for me and I will ensure this is a top prriority for school reform in the 2nd Suffolk District.

James Grant – Massachusetts State Senate Candidate 2022

2^nd Suffolk District