by Guest Blogger Nwenna Kai Gates
I've noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my 30 years of teaching: schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic -- it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor.” --John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
One of my mentors told me once that you can’t teach a person how to think, but that you can only teach them how to ask the right questions so that the thinking process could be stimulated.
Critical thinking is disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence. (www.dictionary.com)
As an English professor, I struggle to teach my students how critical it is to ask the right questions and to think critically and holistically on readings and discussions in the classroom. Often it is a challenge to hold discussions informed by logic and not by emotion.
I grew up and was schooled in a system where critical thinking was imperative to one’s survival. However, today our students are more distracted by mobile devices, social media antics, and shortened attention spans that often diminishes the richness of tackling concrete and complicated topics of interest with tactical evidence based solutions. On top of the distractions, as professors, we do not always set high enough standards to maintain the space of such an environment in order to encourage our students to think critically. Over the past 30 years, our educational institutions have become institutions where students are taught to obey orders as opposed to institutions where students are encouraged to think independently.
What this world needs now more than ever is a generation of critical thinkers especially in the African American community.
Because who is going to solve the complex problems of the justice system, the high incarceration rates of Black men, the sub-standard education and poor reading and writing levels of Black children, female-headed single households, and high rates of poverty.
We need critical thinkers for these issues, not citizens who obey orders.
So the question comes to how can we as professors nurture our students to think critically?
This is what professors can do:
- Encourage students to read The New York Times, The Wall St. Journal, The Washington Post as well as stay informed by global news outlets such as the BBC and RT News;
- Find ways to create relevant lessons plans in all projects and assignments (An example of this would be in my public speaking class we are conducting debates where students are required to conduct heavy research and formulate evidenced based arguments on topics such as should drugs be legalized);
- Encourage games and short activities that stimulate the thinking process and that speak to human nature (For example: The Red/Black Game; see http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~lziegler/redblack.html for more information on how to play);
- Choose readings and books that will provoke heated discussions and provide a larger context for what the world we live in;
- Go back to the basics and teach students how to read critically, how to study, how to listen, and how to take notes.
Overall, critical thinking is imperative to the survival of individuals, educational institutions, and communities at large because complex problems require complex analyses solved by critically thinking people.
Nwenna Kai Gates, a former restaurateur and TV producer is an adjunct professor in the Modern Languages and Literature department. She teaches screenwriting, public speaking, and English composition courses. She runs a wellness educational company called The LiveWell Movement and is the author of the book, The Goddess of Raw Foods. She lives in Philadelphia with her family where she home schools her 3-month old daughter when she is not at Lincoln University. Other than that, she loves Bikram yoga, green smoothies, preparing vegan meals, and teaching the students of Lincoln University. Visit her website at www.nwenna.com.