I've always been a bit taken aback by the term "critical thinking." After seeing yet another piece bemoaning the internet generation's lack of critical thinking, I have arrived at why I abhor the term.
Critical thinking is an educational term used to describe a methodical, logical, rational approach to the world which consults known authorities in the respective fields of knowledge. Thus, a critical thinker, wanting to know more about sinus problems, would consult the National Institutes of Health website--a source of respected information that comes from accepted scientific studies.
While that is not a wrong way to look at the world, it is a meme-specific way to look at the world. Since it is closely tied to the Rational/Modernist/Orange meme, it is something we
grow in to and subsequently
grow out of! And we have (among adults in the developed world) high populations of Traditionalists/Amber/Blue meme, Pluralists/Postmodernists/Green meme, and a developing group of Integralists/Yellow/Teal meme. The Pluralists and Integralists both hold "higher" ways of assessing the world than the critical thinking espoused by the educators.
I am taken aback by anyone who sees "critical thinking" as the highest way of assessing the world and see the complainers as lacking in meme development themselves.
What do you think?
Lalia
