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RE: We Desperately Need Critical Thinking
I work in an high school and critical thinking is one, if not, the defining element between the students who succeed (at school and beyond) and those who don't. Being good academically also doesn't always translate to good critical thinking skills...
What's the best way to develop critical thinking at an early age?
Reading a lot. Kids that start out reading at a young age develop a greater understanding of language and can tackle the harder questions earlier than the general populace. Other than this, ask your kids their opinion on something then tell them to argue the other side. Make sure they know that if they can't argue the other side they don't deserve to have an opinion.
This is indeed a good approach as well. Putting yourself in other people's "shoes" so to speak is a good tool.
Teach people it is okay to ask questions. Teach people to be tolerant of those with differing opinions.
I believe teach them the fallacies EARLY and use flash cards to see if they can identify them. Many people that have taken critical thinking, or claim to teach it often resort to a lot of the logical fallacies when pushing their own ideas. So teach kids to identify such things.
Appeal to Authority / AKA Argument from Authority
Appeal to Emotion / AKA Argument from Emotion
Appeal to Popularity / AKA Bandwagon
Appeal to Tradition
Appeal to the Stone (this one is important and many people have no clue about it)
Then you can play mental games of tag using things like Red herring, Ad hominem, Slippery Slope, etc.
Appeal to Authority is a VERY important one.
People often use AUTHORITY to shut down discussion even if that "authority" is wrong, or partially wrong.
Also one VERY important thing. Teach kids that it is okay and even a good thing to be wrong. People who are rarely wrong in reality are just people who are not learning much.
I did want to add that critical thinking clashes with many of the other politically correct agendas they are pushing in schools and universities.
Pushing for example gender fluidity based upon an appeal to authority from some psychologists beginning in 1948. Prior to that Gender and Sex were the same thing for thousands of years. They don't have to remain that way or I'd be giving you an Appeal to Tradition. Yet, it is also rather less than honest to hijack that word and redefine it so its context for thousands of years of documentation was no longer valid. The correct thing would to have created a NEW label for their "ideas". I do not acknowledge their authority.
Also pushing of the ideas of "consensus" as though that matters is anathema to critical thinking. It is an Appeal to Popularity fallacy. Truth and facts are not dictated by a quantity of people.
So it'd be difficult to TEACH critical thinking in school these days when so many of the things seem aimed at destroying critical thinking.