Critical thinking ‘PSA’

Dear Editor:

This is my version of a PSA (public service announcement).

When I was in secondary school, a social studies teacher decided to teach us the basics of critical thinking. We brought newspaper clippings of current events, advertisements, government ads, etc. to class, and he would teach us to deconstruct the sentences and identify terminology, misleading language (he called this “weasel words”), evaluate evidence (or note the lack of it), do fact checking, identify faulty reasoning and bias, and challenge assumptions.

I think critical thinking should be part of the curricula of every high school. It is one of the basic skills you need for life. We are being bombarded with advertising, scams, government and media rhetoric (propaganda), fake news, and various other manipulative methods.

If you have never studied critical thinking, I encourage you to try it. It will help you make better fact-based decisions, with less influence by emotions or fear of the unknown.

Dale Gallo-Hendrikx,
Fergus