SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EARLY YEARS

Psychologists agree that the early years of life are the most significant in shaping a person. Like sapling trees, small children are very pliable. The reasons for this are obvious. Everything is new to them. They are constantly recording impressions, and they lack any sophisticated process for sorting out those impressions and dealing with them. Children cannot think analytically. They cannot even express their reactions verbally.

The impact of children's early experiences can be profound, affecting their basic outlook toward themselves and other. Dr. Thomas A. Harris suggests that there are four such outlooks, and not all of them are healthy:

1. I'm not OK – You're OK.

2. I'm not OK – you're not OK.

3. I'm OK – You're not OK.

4. I'm OK – You're OK.

The first outlook occurs for everyone between birth and age two or three. It develops when children sense their own fumbling helplessness and adults' comparative ability. The difference in size and skill makes adults seem almost

godlike. And so children feel inferior. Age two or three, in Harris's view, is an important juncture. Children may continue in the first outlook with their feelings of inferiority lessening as they grow in knowledge and skill. Or they may slip into the harmful second or third outlook.

The second develops when mothers are unusually cold. Lacking any encouragement, the children literally lack a reason to live. If they survive, they tend to become emotionally stunted, unable to accept recognition from anyone.

The third outlook occurs when cruel, unloving parents beat and abuse their children. Each time the children experience an episode of violence, they are forced to provide their own encouragement and comfort. Thus they turn away from others. (Harris calls this outlook the criminal position because the history of many psychopathic individuals reveals it.)

The fourth outlook, Harris stresses, is the only conscious one. That is, it is the only one based on faith, thought, and action. People fortunate enough to have had caring, encouraging parents get the necessary start. Then through later childhood and adolescence, they gradually grow out of both the emotional, unthinking responses of the child and the uncritical dependence on earlier teachings. They become thinking, self-directed people – individuals. They have both a sense of their won worth (I'm OK) and faith and trust in others (You're OK)

BECOMING AN INDIVIDUAL

What does individuality mean and to what extent can a person be an individual? In the current popular imagination, individuality means "doing your own thing," responding to life's situations in whatever way seems most natural. The problem with that notion is that it ignores all  the shaping forces we have been discussing. It denies the fact that each of us has been channeled and conditioned to a great degree. It pretends there is some inner self untouched by all that we have experienced, all that has happened to us.

The fact is that if you define individuality in the popular way and act on that definition, you'll be acting like Pavlov's famous dog. Pavlov rang a bell whenever he placed food in front of the dog. After a while, he conditioned the dog to drool when he heard the bell, even though no food was presented to him. The dog was doing what came naturally to him. But what camenaturally was influenced by his experience. He was controlled by a force outside himself.

Obviously, individuality must be something more than that. It must be the habit of developing your own personal responses to people, issues, and situations, rather than mindlessly endorsing the responses you have been conditioned to make. These guidelines will help you achieve individuality:

1. Tree your first reaction to any person, issue, or situation as tentative. No matter how appealing it may be, refuse to embrace it until after you have examined it.

2. Decide why you reacted as youdid. Consider whether you borrowed the reaction from someone else – a parent or friend, perhaps, or a celebrity or fictional character on television. If possible, determine what specific experiences conditioned you to react this way.

3. Think of other reactions your might have had to the person, issue, or situation.

4. Ask yourself whether one of the other reactions is more appropriate than your first reaction. And when you answer, resist the influence of your conditioning.

To ensure that you will really be an individual, and not merely claim tobe one, apply these guidelines throughout your work in this book, as well as in your everyday life.

CHAPTER TWO

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING

When Arthur was in the first grade, the teacher directed the class to "think." "Now, class," she said, "I know this problem is a little harder than the ones we've been doing, but I'm going to give you a few extra minutes to think about it. Now start thinking."

It was not the first time Arthur had heard the word used. He'd heard it many times at home but never quite this way. The teacher seemed to be asking for some special activity, something he should know how to start and stop. Like his father's car. "Vroom-m-m," he muttered half aloud. Because of his confusion, hewas unaware he was making the noise. "Arthur, please stop making noises and start thinking."

Embarrassed and not knowing quite what to do, he looked down at his desk. Then out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the little girl next to him was staring at the ceiling. "Maybe that's the way you start thinking," he guessed. He decided the others had probably learned how to do it last year, that time he was home with the measles. So he stared at the ceiling. As he progressed through grade school and high school, he heard that same direction hundreds of times. "No, that's not the answer, you're not thinking – now think!"

And occasionally, form a particularly self-pitying teacher given to talking to himself aloud: "What did I do to deserve this? Don't they teach them anything in the grades anymore? Don't you people care about ideas? Think, dammit, THINK."  So Arthur learned to feel somewhat guilty about the whole matter. Obviously this thinking was an important activity that he'd failed to learn.

Maybe he lacked the brain power. But he was resourceful enough. He watched the other students and did what they did. Whenever a teacher started in about thinking, the screwed up his face, furrowed his brow, stretched his head, stroked his chin, stared off into space or up at the ceiling, and repeated silently to himself, "Let's see now, I've got to think about that, think, think (I hope he doesn't call on me), think." Though Arthur didn't know it, that's just what the other students were saying to themselves.

Because Arthur's situation is not all that uncommon, your experience may have been similar. That is, probably many people have gold you to think, but no one ever explained what thinking is, how many kinds of thinking there are, and what qualities a good thinker has that a poor thinker lacks.

Thinking is a general term covering numerous activities from day-dreaming to reflection and analysis. Here are just some of the verbs Roget's Thesaurus includes for the word think:

appreciate believe cerebrate

cogitate conceive consider consult

contemplate deliberate digest

discuss dream

fancy imagine meditate muse

ponder realize reason

reflect ruminate speculate suppose

weigh

However, all of those are just the names that thinking goes under.

They really don't explain it. The fact is after thousands of years of humans' experiencing thought and talking and writing about it, it remains in many respects one of the great mysteries of human existence. But though much is  yet to be learned, a great deal is already known.

ONE BRAIN OR TWO?

Brain function research has revealed the importance of a small bundle of nerves found between the left and right sides of the brain. Until recently that bundle, the corpus callosum, was thought to have no significant function. Now, however, scientists know that the brain is not one center of thought and learning but two. Each side has control over certain skills. When the corpus callosum is intact, the two sides work in harmony (although one may dominate). But when the corpus is cut or damaged, the left side of the brain is no longer aware of what the right side is doing and vice versa.

Experiments performed with patients in this condition reveal hand controlled by the "blind" eye cannot later identify the object by touch. It is a familiar object to one part of the brain but totally unfamiliar to the other.

1 We now know, too, that each half of the brain has its own memories and its own train of thought. The left half deals mainly in words and is associated with analysis and logicalthinking. The right half deals mainly in sensory images and is associated with intuition and creative thinking. Despite the separateness of the hemispheres, however, the brain's functions are profoundly integrated.

Some researchers regard the brain as synonymous with the mind. Western philosophy, however, has traditionally held that there is an important difference. According to this view, the brain is a physical reality whereas the mind is metaphysical – that is, nonmaterial.

CRITICAL THINKING DEFINED

The word critical often carries negative connotation, implying excessive faultfinding. That connotation does not apply to the term critical thinking, which refers to the process of evaluating ideas. When we think critically, we judge the accuracy of statements and the soundness of the reasoning that leads to conclusions. Critical thinking helps us interpret complex ideas, appraise the evidence offered in support of arguments, and distinguish between reasonableness and unreasonableness. Both problem solving and decision making depend on critical thinking, as does the meaningful discussion of controversial issues.  One of the keys to proficiency in critical thinking is skill in asking relevant questions. Where the uncritical accept their first thoughts and others' statements at face value.

Critical thinkers also use questions philosophically; in other words, to wonder about issues, probe them more deeply than is customary, and look for new insights. Consider, for example, the term values. We hear it frequently today in statements like "Our country has lost its traditional values" and "There would be less crime, especially violent crime, if parents and teachers emphasized moral values." Here are some of the questions a critical thinker would ask:

o What is the relationship between values and beliefs? Between values and convictions?

o Are all values valuable?

o How aware is the average person of his or her values? Is it possible that many people deceive themselves about their real values?

o Where do one's values originate? Within the individual or outside? In thought or in feeling?

o Does education change a person's values? If so, is this change always for the better?

o Should parents and teachers attempt to shape children's values?

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRITICAL THINKERS

There are a number of misconceptions about critical thinking.

One is that being able to support beliefs with reasons makes one a critical thinker. Virtually everyone has reasons, however pathetic they may be. The test of critical thinking is whether the reasons are good and sufficient.

Another misconception is that critical thinkers never imitate others in thought or action. If that were the case, then every pigheaded person would be a critical thinker. Critical thinking means making wise decisions, regardless of how common those decisions are.

A third misconception is that critical thinking is synonymous with having a lot of right answers in one's head. There's nothing wrong with having right answers, of course. But critical thinking is the process of finding answers when they are not so readily available.

Yet another misconception is that critical thinking cannot be learned, that one either "has it" or does not.

On the contrary, critical thinking is a matter of habit. The most careless, sloppy thinker can become a critical thinker by developing the characteristics of a critical thinker.

Another is control of their mental activities. American philosopher John Dewey once observed that more of our time than most of us care to admit is spent "trifling with mental pictures, random recollections, pleasant but unfounded hopes, flitting, half-developed impressions." Good thinkers are no exception. However, they have learned better than poor thinkers how to stop that casual, semiconscious drift of images when they wish and how to fix their minds on one specific matter, examine it carefully, and form a judgment about it. They have learned, in other words, how to take charge of their thoughts, to use their minds actively as well as passively.

Here are some additional characteristics of critical thinkers, as contrasted with those of uncritical thinkers:

As the desirable qualities suggested, critical thinking depends on mental discipline. Effective thinkers exert control over their mental life, direct their thoughts rather than being directed by them, and withhold their endorsement of any idea – even their own – until they have tested and proved it. John Dewey considered this mental discipline to be identical with freedom. That is, he argued that people who do not have it are not free persons but slaves. Here his words:

If a man's actions are not guided by thoughtful conclusions, then they are guided by inconsiderate impulse, unbalanced appetite, caprice, or the circumstances of the moment. To cultivate unhindered, unreflective external activity is to foster enslavement, for it leaves the person at the mercy of appetite, sense, and circumstance.

THE ROLE OF INTUITION

Intuition is instinctive knowing or perception without reference to the rational process. Of all aspects of thinking, it is perhaps the most dramatic and therefore the most fascinating. History records many cases of important discoveries just "occurring" to people. They may not even be consciously considering the matter. Then all of a sudden the answer comes to them, seemingly out of nowhere.

The German chemist Kekule foundthe solution to a difficult chemical problem that way. He was very tired when he slipped into a daydream.The image of a snake swallowing his tail came to him – and that provided the clue to the structure of the

benzene molecule, which is a ring, rather than a chain, of atoms.5 The German writer Goethe had experienced great difficulty organizing a large mass of material for one of his works. Then he learned of the tragic suicide of a close friend. At that very instant the plan for organizing his material occurred to him in detail.6 The English writer Coleridge (you may have read his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in high school) awoke from a dream with between two and three hundred lines of a new and complex poem clearly in mind.

Intuition is not restricted to famous men and women. Most of us have had similar though less momentous experiences with it. And two facts are common to all these experiences, great and small alike. The first is that intuition cannot be controlled; the second is that intuition is not completely trustworthy. Even the strongest intuition can prove wrong.

For both reasons, though intuition is always a welcome companion to critical thinking, it is never a substitute for it. This, of course, is no cause for concern because many other skills of thinking can becontrolled and developed.

CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING

Writing may be used for either of two broad purposes – to discover ideas or to communicate ideas. Most of the writing you have done in school is undoubtedly the latter kind. But the former can be very helpful, not only in sorting out ideas you've already produced, but in stimulating the flow of ideas. For some reason, the very act of writing down one idea has a way of producing additional ideas. Whenever you write to discover ideas, focus on the issue you are examining and record all your thoughts, questions as well as assertions. Don't worry about organization or correctness. If ideas come slowly, be patient. If they suddenly come in a rush, don't try to slow the process down and develop any one of them, but jot them all down. (There will be time for elaboration, and for correction, later.) Direct your mind's effort, but be sensitive to ideas on the fringes of consciousness. Often they, too, will prove valuable.

If you have done your discovery writing well and have thought critically about the ideas you have produced, the task of writing to communicate will be easier and more enjoyable. You will have many more ideas – tested and proven ideas – to develop and organize.