Significant Article About Critical Thinking
Are you a Critical Thinker?
Read This and Find Out!
"Critical Thinking" is a phrase.
I went to school and, thanks to a teacher,
I know enough to go to the dictionary
to look something up.
The dictionary that's handy here is
"The American Heritage Dictionary"
1994 Houghton Mifflin, from which
I obtained the definitions that follow.
PHRASE n. A sequence of words intended
to have meaning.
WORD n. A meaningful sound or combination
of sounds, or its representation in writing.
A verbal signal.
SIGNAL n. An indicator that serves
as a means of communication: a traffic signal;
a smoke signal.
MEANING n. 1. Something signified; sense.
2. Something one wishes to convey,
esp. by language.
SENSE n. One of the meanings of a word
or phrase. SENSING v. to understand.
SENSELESS adj. 1. Lacking sense or meaning;
meaningless 2. Foolish.
NONSENSE n. 1. Foolish or absurd language
or behavior.
2. Matter of little or no importance or use.
Since words are verbal signals, like
traffic signals(see above definitions),
shouldn't they have agreed upon meanings,
like traffic signals?
Suppose I say to the police officer,
"The best definition for 'red' may well
be my own, sir. I define 'red' to mean
'go'."
Of course not, that's nonsense
(see above definitions).
Suppose people are trying to communicate
using smoke signals or similar methods,
such as the dots and dashes of morse code,
or the different arm or flag signals
given to aviators. What is
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING?
IT'S THAT THERE MUST BE AN AGREED
UPON MEANING FOR THE SIGNALS OR THE
SIGNALS ARE MEANINGLESS!
Excuse me. I apologize for raising
my voice. I really am trying to
make this simple enough
but I can't reduce it any more.
Let me regain my good parlor-room
manners and whisper this:
If words don't have agreed upon meanings,
they are meaningless nonsense.
Words are signals that convey meaning
and if they don't convey meaning,
they're not good words. Don't use them!
They convey confusion.
I really don't care what the authorities
decide to mean by "Critical Thinking",
as long as they agree to a standard.
We need standards in this world.
In science, we have the meter, the second
and the kilogram, and other wonderfully
stable and agreed upon standards such
as the speed of light!
There's a meterstick in Paris
that is maintained under
carefully controlled conditions of
pressure, temperature and non-harmful
exposure, so that it will remain
a stable, unchanging standard of
meaning for WHAT A METER IS!
Actually, it's really symbolic
because scientists have found more
accurate and stable standards based
on light wavelenghts and really
advanced hard-to-measure stuff like
that, but what a wonderful symbol
it is! Like the Statue of Liberty
in New York Harbor, like The Mother
of Russia statue in Volvograd that
symbolize freedom, like the atomic
clock in Colorado that can give us
a standard second of time, can
someone please give us a standard,
agreed upon meaning for the phrases,
"Critical Thinking", "Critical Thinker",
and "Critical Thinking Skills?".
One more stop on my pilgrimage,
my journey for the truth of the Meaning
(of Critical Thinking). I must consult
the guru, The Great Teacher. What
would Diane Ravitch say?
She writes, "critical thinking skills,
see mental discipline." (Note 7)
I humbly bow to the great master.
What great wisdom she shows. How artfully
she has dodged the nonsense!
On page 547, she writes "mental discipline
(critical thinking skills)".
On page 31, she writes, "The object
of education, he (Eliot) frequently said,
was to gain mental discipline,
what educators in the late twentieth century
would call 'critical thinking skills'."
And on page 45, she writes, "...'we must learn
to see straight and clear; to compare and infer;
to make an accurate record; to remember;
TO EXPRESS OUR THOUGHT WITH PRECISION; and
to hold fast lofty ideals.' These were the
elements of mental discipline to which Eliot
was unswervingly loyal."
My journey was fruitful. I had obtained
wisdom from the master. Yet, I wondered,
could I not have journeyed within
and found the truth myself?
I looked within (the dictionary, that is),
and there I found definitions of:
CRITICAL adj. Marked by careful evaluation.
THINK v. 1. To have or formulate in the mind.
2a. To ponder. 2b. To reason. 3. To believe;
suppose. 4. To call to mind; remember.
5. To visualize; imagine. 6. To devise or
invent: Think up a plan.
7. To consider.
MY DEFINITION OF CRITICAL THINKING IS:
"Thinking marked by careful evaluation."
The best definition for Critical Thinking
may well be my own.
If you are an enthusiast for the phrase,
"Critical Thinking", then you are
enthusiastic for a term that does not
express meaning with precision, but
rather the opposite. Therefore, you
are not a good critical thinker.
If you eschew the use of the phrase,
"Critical Thinking" because it does not
convey meaning with precision, then,
CONGRATULATIONS!
You think with careful evaluation !