A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Have you noticed that some people think they’re expressing facts when really they’re telling you a story about a fact?

Facts matter, but it’s what we say about them that determines how we think. Sometimes the stories we tell become so powerful, we adopt beliefs that undermine the fact itself. I’ve watched people use the same fact to prove entirely opposing ideas or beliefs.

Self-Awareness

That’s why I like to remind everyone that critical thinking starts with self-awareness. We can notice the way our own desire to be right or to fit into our communities or to know more than someone else undermines our ability to learn or have our assumptions challenged. We might even reject a fact just because it conflicts with what our community expects us to believe.

My workbook BECOMING A CRITICAL THINKER teaches your 12-18 year olds how to hold a bias while examining uncomfortable views. It gives them direct experience with examining their assumptions and exploring the ideas and beliefs of people who see the world differently. They will have tools that help them identify scams and charlatans.

Let’s raise a generation of kids who don’t get sucked into black-and-white, antagonistic thinking! Teach them to think for themselves and to think well!

Our in-person lives tend to put us in relationships built on agreement.

The internet, however, introduces us to people we would never meet in person. That’s both wonderful and challenging. We never know the condition of a person’s mind, heart, or personality when we encounter them online. Others come to us without context.

Yet we also have the chance to learn perspectives that would otherwise be completely hidden from us if we didn’t have online life together with so many different types of people and experiences.

The trouble is…

We’ve been conditioned to believe that if we declare a “fact” with a source of authority, everyone will fall into line and agree with us. Isn’t that what happens in school? One right answer for each test question, established by the authority, enforced by that teacher, regardless of who you are.

So we are struggling to adapt to a world where lots of answers with many sources of authority compete for space and truth value. It’s a huge adjustment! It will take time to overcome.

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Also, for extra support in the process, my book Raising Critical Thinkers goes into much more depth about these ideas.

Have you ever felt like someone was pressuring you to take their viewpoint? They may:

• use coercive language,
• shame you,
• be condescending,
• or criticize your character.

That’s not critical thinking. That’s group think. That’s the pressure to pick sides or to prove your loyalty.

I use these five principles to help me when I feel slammed by pushy messages, comments, or remarks from family or friends.

5 Principles

1. Critical thinking starts with caring.
2. We believe we’re sharing facts, when in fact (ha!) we’re sharing interpretations of facts.
3. Knowing you’re biased is half the journey to self-aware critical thinking.
4. Underneath our desire to have the correct point of view is a drive for sameness—the certainty of agreement rather than the discomfort of difference.
5. Deeper thinking depends on the ability to expand the field of vision, to notice our emotional reactivity, and to assess the judgments we’ve made on that basis.

My book for parents, Raising Critical Thinkers, and workbook for teens, Becoming a Critical Thinker, were written for these exact reasons. Thinking well is risky, emotionally volatile, and deeply important.

In the era of social media news, every parent of teens I talk to is worried that their kids are being schnookered!

• How will their kids sort accurate data from misinformation?
• Why do teens feel strongly about ideas that seem dangerous or unimportant to their parents?
• What can teens do to improve their ability to think for themselves rather than following along with their peers?

These are the kinds of questions I address in my new workbook: BECOMING A CRITICAL THINKER.

I wrote it because I know how much teens are capable of becoming capable, nuanced thinkers if they are given the right tools. The practices and processes in this workbook are enough to fill an entire school year with activities that will deepen and expand how well your teens critically think about everything from their favorite music to issues of the day to how to form their values.

BECOMING A CRITICAL THINKER is out now!!

Celebrate with me as I talk about the workbook on a special episode of the Brave Writer podcast!

This workbook is consumable so you may want one for each of your kids between the ages of 12-18.

Because I know you’ll ask: yes, adults can use this workbook too. Just be aware that the tone of the writing is directed to teens, even though the activities themselves work for any age.

If you are new to my work: you may also like RAISING CRITICAL THINKERS which is my nonfiction book for parents to help them be effective thinkers themselves all while teaching their kids to think well too.

Editor’s Description

At a time when we’re constantly flooded with contradictory information and opinions, critical thinking skills are more important than ever. This accessible workbook is full of valuable insights, thought-provoking questions, and useful exercises to help teens and preteens expand their perspectives, skillfully navigate thorny issues, recognize bias, identify misinformation, and become more comfortable with dissent and differences of opinion. Becoming a Critical Thinker offers essential tools for students to mature into thoughtful, curious, and empathetic learners.

While I have you here: Thank you for supporting the work I do in the world. It means so much to me to be able to share what I’ve learned in my three decades of examining thinking—

• why we think what we do
• why we think we’re right and the “other guy” is wrong
• why we get so unsettled when someone we love doesn’t think the way we wish they would

Critical thinking is essential for our teens especially. They are bombarded with loud, clanging information that has the appearance of truth but may simply be manipulation. We can help them learn how to tell the difference.

There is no better course you can give your teens than the tools to think well about every issue under the sun—including the ones that concern you most as their parent.

I hope you and your kids enjoy working with these tools! I can’t wait to hear how it goes.

I’m grateful for you.