Critical thinking in the school system

It’s just something they really don’t teach. Or rather, don’t allow our children to experience much of. We are taught to solve problems and given a direct path on exactly how to do it.

But what happens when we find another path to the correct answer? Maybe a shorter or more efficient one? We get docked points because it wasn’t done exactly how it was supposed to be done. So, we saved ourselves time (a depleting resource) and we get punished for it. The industrialist mind wants workers that follow directions exactly. The connection economy requires the complete opposite.

That’s how the system works. Do it their way, you win. Do it your own, you lose. If we are raise a generation of children that want to solve hard problems, we’re going to have to let them do it however they can. For some it might take them longer to get there. But the journey is where you learn. It’s through the trials and falls that we learn to keep going, or learn to quit and go another way.

This issue of critical thinking is extremely important. It’s so important that it could be one of the largest flaws in our system today. In school it’s a math problem, but in life, it’s a world problem.

Spreading the gospel is full of solving critical problems. How will I talk to this person about Christ? How will I get into that country to share with those people? How will I serve my industry with a gospel mindset? Critical problems that require creative answers. 

Without the desire to learn and ability to forge our own path, we will never be the creative individuals we were designed to be.

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