Looking down at all the supplies that I had hoarded for my art project, my elementary school teacher disapprovingly wagged her finger at me and brushed away all the stencils, markers, and stamps until there was only glitter glue and a purple crayon in front of me. “Choose one. Simplicity is key,” she told me. From a young age, the adults around me tried to suppress my tendency to overthink. As I grew older, I realized that my teacher represented the majority of people around me. It seems that “in a world that expects or wants simple answers or only has time for simple answers… simple answers generally win—even if they are largely unsupported by facts or reality. Immigration is a problem? Build a wall! Terrorists coming from Syria? Nuke them! Industries leaving for other countries or irrelevant? Force them to stay!” said American philosopher Tom Rockmore. Not only is this series of implausible reasoning caused by an inclination to oversimplify issues, but it also has to do with the habit of “see[ing] the world in black-andwhite terms,” instead of “in more complex shades of gray” said novelist David Foster Wallace. One of the most direct cures to these damaging tendencies lies in education and the skills of critical thinking. Every society has indisputable necessities, but education, specifically the ability to think critically in the face of difficulty, are irreplaceable factors for a community’s continued growth and prosperity. Thomas More’s Utopia outlines a group of people who place unparalleled importance on the pursuit of knowledge. For the people of More’s Utopia, “the pleasures of the mind lie in knowledge, and in that delight which the contemplation of truth carries with it.”
The importance of critical thinking has manifested itself many times in my life. A particularly memorable experience occurred during a Gender & Sexuality class led by a peer last semester. The lesson involved the screening of three music videos—Madonna’s “Material Girl,” Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls),” and 5th Harmony’s “Work from Home”—followed by a provocative class discussion in which we examined the lyrics, the imageries in the video, and the ways in which the two worked or didn’t work together to channel female empowerment. Throughout our conversation, marked by laughter from time to time, I felt quite disturbed by the fact that the music videos, featuring lyrics advocating for female independence while portraying women seductively crawling towards men, are some of the most sensational and popular works in our society today. It was a sickening feeling to realize that revealing clothing and sexual attraction seemed directly tied to success in the music industry. However, I soon found consolation in our ability to tease out the nuance, sit back, and laugh. Equipped with years of academic training, particularly in critical thinking, we had so much control over the messages sent out by the media. In that moment, I realized we possessed an exceptional form of power. This realization reminds me that while I greatly admire the people of More’s Utopia for being “unwary pursuers of knowledge,” I also wish they embody a higher level of critical thinking, so that when they were given “some hints of the learning and discipline of the Greeks,” they wouldn’t have readily accepted the Greeks’ ideology and language without consulting and preserving their own beliefs.
Critical thinking is also a valuable asset when it comes to engaging in meaningful conversation, often involving disagreement. Academics have found that only “critical thinkers avoid thinking simplistically about complicated issues and strive to appropriately consider the rights and needs of relevant others” (Wallace). In other words, “people skilled in the art of critical thinking make a practice of questioning everything. Even their own opinions” (Wallace). More importantly, critical thinkers acknowledge that there is more than one perspective to the issue at hand. The ability to have a productive conversation is an integral element of the society in More’s Utopia as well. At dinner, old men “begun with some lecture of morality… but they do not engross the whole discourse so to themselves.” Instead, the elders “engage [the young] to talk, that so they may in that free way of conversation find out the force of every one’s spirit.” A “free way of conversation” requires the ability to think critically, so one can evaluate the incoming information and offer their own opinions on the subject. As our world is growing more populous, the ability to engage in effective conversation, especially with people who have differing viewpoints, is more crucial than ever. As we step into trying times, education and critical thinking— seemingly intangible skills—could be our biggest source of light. More than a decade later I realize that my childhood habits to over think are valuable traits that should be protected and instilled in every individual. The future world needs educators who are not trying to hide the colored pencils, paint brushes and glue sticks, but rather are doing their best to spill out more options for us to consider.
