My 15 year old son studies critical thinking at school and apparently he is “outstanding” at it. When I discovered that part of the critical thinking syllabus is all about arguing your case successfully I could have told his teacher that he is a world-beater and undisputed champion of critical thinking in our family.  In fact, can’t most teenagers argue for England already? Do we really need to encourage them to do it better?

Actually yes, and whilst critical thinking is not valued as a qualification in its own right by many top universities, it is a subject that compliments others  very well and provides a base from which arguments and discussions can be constructed successfully. Critical thinking also encourages you to challenge what you read, see or hear so that you don’t blindly believe everything put in front of you.  This does not just provide an academic advantage, it is also a useful life-skill that he will be able to apply to almost everything he does. Lord help us all.

So every week when he comes home  he will be that much better at identifying and resolving dilemmas, analysing and evaluating arguments, understanding ethical issues and unravelling the complexities in his world.

We could all do with some of that.

Maybe more critical thinking and less self-critical thinking would help in the battle against the blues.