The Argument & Critical Thinking Materials

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Are You Teaching Your Children to Think Critically? Few Parents Do

By Sean Braswell

Source: Ozy.com

Over the past year, Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies have ramped up efforts to purge their platforms of accounts spreading fake news, conspiracy theories and other untruths across the internet. But the democratization of the media and the expansion of social media in recent years is placing an increasing burden on us, the consumers of this avalanche of news and information, to do a better job of discerning fact from fiction.

Are we up to the challenge? And how well will our children do at confronting an even more challenging media landscape in the years to come? The early returns are not promising, at least when it comes to how well most of us do at engaging in critical thinking on a regular basis — and asking our children to do the same — including in the critical area of seeking out viewpoints opposed to our own. According to the findings from a new survey of more than 1,100 adults by the Reboot Foundation, an organization committed to examining the state of critical thinking:

Only 20 percent of parents frequently or very often ask their children to consider an opposing view.

Critical thinking is, broadly speaking, that combination of logic, reasoning and analysis that allows us to marshal relevant evidence, weigh competing viewpoints and come to an informed opinion or decision. It is a type of reflective thought that is important not only for navigating our everyday lives but also for fulfilling our roles as citizens in a democracy. Critical thinking has always been important, but in a globalized world drowning in an ocean of information, it has arguably never been more essential.

And most people seem to recognize this importance. Nearly all of the Reboot survey respondents (more than 95 percent) agreed that critical thinking is necessary in today’s world, and is an important skill to teach to children. Similarly, 87 percent said that considering an opposing view is an important exercise.

It’s really human nature to prefer selective thinking.

Helen Lee Bouygues, president, Reboot Foundation

Still, as with a diet or a gym membership, it’s putting principle into practice where most of us fall short. About 25 percent of respondents said they rarely seek out people with views different from their own. And in addition to the one-fifth of parents who say they regularly ask their children to consider an opposing view, just a quarter claim they regularly help them evaluate evidence.

Article continues here:

https://www.ozy.com/acumen/are-we-teaching-our-children-enough-critical-thinking-skills/91337