Some critical thinking about “critical thinking”

In this article Professor Henry Edmondson casts a critical eye at American education schools. Especially good is his skepticism about one of the little mantras of the education establishment, namely that American students really benefit from all the attention paid to “critical thinking” skills. Edmondson asks exactly what that means and concludes that it doesn’t mean that our young people are being turned into super-sharp logicians. Instead, “critical thinking” seems to be teaching kids to say things critical of anything the education establishment doesn’t like.