I think critical thinking skills need to be nurtured from a young age. By the time students reach collegiate level, they've (hopefully) already figured out a way to retain and show they understand information given to them, but it isn't necessarily a method utilizing critical thinking.
Children are natural scientists trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. I don't think the American public educational system encourages this natural curiosity. We live in a good school district (according to test scores, SAT scores, and "college preparedness"), but I'm very disappointed that all they really do is: Sit on a mat, Teacher gives the lesson, Kids go to their desks, Do work to reinforce the lesson, Bring home homework to reinforce the lesson… There's really no allowance for natural curiosity. I've already had homework battles with my 1st grader. He expresses exasperation that he already knows the information, so why does he have to do it a million times, and continue to prove that he knows the information. He kind of feels like a performing monkey. This is not encouraging critical thinking, rather it teaches him to simply regurgitate what has been drilled into his head. I don't think this is atypical of a lot of kids in public school.
Children are natural scientists trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. I don't think the American public educational system encourages this natural curiosity. We live in a good school district (according to test scores, SAT scores, and "college preparedness"), but I'm very disappointed that all they really do is: Sit on a mat, Teacher gives the lesson, Kids go to their desks, Do work to reinforce the lesson, Bring home homework to reinforce the lesson… There's really no allowance for natural curiosity. I've already had homework battles with my 1st grader. He expresses exasperation that he already knows the information, so why does he have to do it a million times, and continue to prove that he knows the information. He kind of feels like a performing monkey. This is not encouraging critical thinking, rather it teaches him to simply regurgitate what has been drilled into his head. I don't think this is atypical of a lot of kids in public school.
