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Becoming a Critical Thinker

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Becoming a Critical Thinker
By Dr. Lew A. Weider
“A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.”
Proverbs 14:15
What Was He Thinking?!
How many times have we said these words out loud as we watch reality home videos on television? You know the kind—the people who will do anything to get on TV! Like the guy that took his sled up onto the roof after a heavy snowfall. His bravado was showing all over as he stood on the roof, waving his sled for all to see. The stunt he intended to perform was to go sledding off of his roof and happily land on the deck below. No doubt he thought that all of that snow would help him make the perfect soft landing. Boy was he wrong! It was a brutal scene. He made a crash landing onto the deck. There was no more bravado. His body was crumpled in a heap in the midst of the splintered pieces of his sled. What was he thinking?

His passion to attempt the impossible overshadowed his ability to think at all. We often have to set aside our passion to think clearly, to think critically, in order to make wise decisions.

Critical Thinking
It is a common practice we do every day, but we may never even be aware of it. For example, in the English language, how do you know whether the word “r-e-a-d” should be understood as a directive to “read a book,” or if it is to be understood as a past-tense word describing a moment that someone “had already read that book last week?”
Critical thinking.

Another example is with the word “conflict.” Do we have a “conflict” (i.e. a moment of tense disagreement) occurring between our children? Or, does our view “conflict” with another’s view (i.e. to be contradictory, used as a verb)? How do we know the difference?
Critical thinking.

What is the difference between “supervision” and “oversight?” Break those two words apart (super-vision and over-sight) and you have

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