I think these blogs post are extremely helpful and creative to help us relate real world and personal situations to what we are currently learning in this course. Communication is something that is literally everywhere in our culture. Every society has a basis of communication and I think it’s important that students are able to acknowledge that and see how the models, chapters we read, and discussion we have apply to reality. However that being said, I struggled a little bit because I felt like I had so much information to look through. It honestly felt impossible to find a single sentence that stands out from all of the textbook rhetoric and makes me consider the course material in a unique way.
Fortunately the sentence I have selected definitely made me consider our lessons, primarily our critical thinking and compassionate listening section, through a more real-world lens. I’m beginning to see how these lessons we are learning in class can be applied in an actual person or relationship or interaction. The sentence I selected was, “Critical thinkers are generous and cautious, open-minded but wary, and appreciative of intent but willing to hold themselves and others responsible for the effects of their communication.” (Warren, Fassett 53). In my opinion this quote captures the essence of who a critical thinker is and how they should conduct themselves. This takes a textbook concept of a critical thinker and develops into how a real person, with critical thinking skills should act. I think the ability to have critical thinking is massively important. Unfortunately not a lot of people are able to develop strong critical thinking skills within our culture. I believe the people who are true critical thinkers and exhibit the traits from the quote are the ones who stand out and make a difference. These types of people are able to take themselves out of their biases or preconceived notions and be able to partake in active and dialogic listening. They can dig into the deep meaning of the conversation and develop appropriate thoughts from though.
Thinking back on course in-lecture material, I revisited one of the critical thinkers we had discussed in class. I think bell hooks is one of the best examples of a critical thinker that we have discussed in class. Imagine the critical thinking that goes into a woman deciding to uncapitalize the letters of her name so she can conduct commentary on grammar prescriptivism. The statement of not having capital letters means that bell hooks took a very critical consideration to what this would mean for her and how it would affect others.
Unfortunately, in today’s culture the majority of people are lacking critical thinking skills. The Foundation of Critical Thinking published the article, “ The State of Critical Thinking Today” written by Richard Paul in 2004, discussing the issue of how critical thinking skills are seriously depreciating in education settings. While one may argue that the article is outdated, it can even be more applied to today’s society. With the introduction of more and more technology, our culture has developed weak active listening skills. According to the article, our culture is not at a complete loss, we just have to work harder and dedicate more time to cultivating critical thinking. Paul discusses how we have become impatient in today’s society, wanting more in less time and that applies to thinking as well.
In order to improve our critical thinking skills we have accept that we will have to dedicate time to do so. bell hooks dedicated time to her thought process when she made the decision to uncapitalize her name. Once we are able to commit to the time required for critical thinking, we have the ability to develop legitimate critical thinking skills. Through those skills we will transform into a generous, intelligent, and appreciative person and who is able to take responsibility of our thoughts and actions.
Works Cited
Paul, Richard. “The State of Critical Thinking Today.” The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2004, www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-state-of-critical-thinking-today/523.
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