Karen Sticht: Students who are taught critical thinking skills learn valuable lessons

To The Daily Sun,

Wouldn’t it be fun if educators actually looked at both sides of interesting issues and allowed their students to research, debate and come up with their own conclusions?

Take science for example, maybe even climate change. Instead of teachers forcing their own political views on the students, why not encourage the class to research and debate all aspects of climate change, using their skills and creativity to come up with reasoning and solutions? Fossil fuel is a sub-topic — what are the pros and cons of using oil versus electric, solar and wind energy? Let the students figure it out and respect the process.

Or, take English for example, maybe the pronoun issue in America right now.  English grammar gives us pronoun use. Would it be interesting for the students to look at the various range of pronouns now used and figure out why pronoun use has changed and whether they personally agree with it?

Or take U.S. history for example, maybe the topic of slavery and how it came about during the colonial days related to the political movements of today. Is there a defining truth, do actions like taking down statues, changing school and team names erase too much American history?  

These issues and many more have no clear right or wrong answers. It’s important that students are given the opportunity to learn critical thinking skills so they can see both sides of issues and come to their own conclusions.  Families need to also be involved because it’s an educational process that is important for all ages.

To the educators who are already using critical thinking skills, who are giving their students the tools to research and come to their own opinions without bias or punishments, thank you.  

Karen Sticht

Meredith