Critical Thinking

I have two kids in University this year. Sorry, young adults. The twins are spreading their wings and expanding their minds in the hallowed halls of Higher Learning. It’s all about them learning to think and follow a problem through to the logical conclusion. Learning to use the resources around them to the best advantage.

It’s wonderful to see them branching out and focusing on their future. Although sometimes their future seems to be attending university parties, field trips off campus and the plethora of social clubs. We get more information on all the extracurricular activities than we do about their actual classes.

Which is just about how I remember it. Good to see some things don’t change…

It’s pretty fun to see their faces when they come up to the first assignment due date. All the exploration on the campus and meeting new friends collides spectacularly with the requirements of the coursework.

For instance, my daughter sent us a picture of a row of 22 books on her bookshelf. It was for one class. I giggled. Then she showed us the rest of the books for the other classes and I giggled again. What can I say – been there, done that, bought the T-shirt and I’m entitled to laugh.

Here’s another example. My son and I had an interesting conversation the other day. I received a text asking for help on one of his assignments. No problem, although it would be slow going with my no-so-lightening fast texting reflexes. The next request was to meet him on Facebook and chat about it. That lasted about two minutes – the chat forum wasn’t the most efficient either.

Talk about two different generations! I finally just called him up on the phone. Might as well use all those free minutes I’m ultimately paying for anyway.

I was giving him a hand with the opening paragraph of a critique he had to do for one class. We knocked around a couple of ideas and I left him to do his homework and went about my day.

A few hours later he arrived home. After raiding the fridge and the cookie jar, he popped down to my office to say hello. I asked him how the day went, did he learn anything and did the critique writing go well? All the usual questions from a parent to a school kid.

I learned he found a great spot to eat, there was another social club he wanted to join and oh yeah, the critique was almost done.

What made this conversation so interesting was his critical thinking path regarding the critique. He said that he had the info for the body of the paper and his opinion ready to write down, but he really struggled with the opening remarks.

He then said that he tried an Internet search to see what a critique was and how he should start one. That didn’t help. Too many options and differences of opinion. He tried to get a hold of some of his friends that were in the English major programme, but they were all in class and not available for an hour or so.

After digging around the library for awhile with no luck, he thought “Hey, maybe Dad could help!”

Hmm. His dad. His dad the writer. What are the odds?

Now that’s critical thinking.