The Importance Of Knowledge Critical Thinking

As children, we are forced to learn the curriculum our teachers create in order to educate our minds and fill us with knowledge we can use for the future. Through time, we combine all of this knowledge and take different tests that will decide whether or not we can go to college and be _____ into higher education. However, when it comes to truly understanding the subject, students tend may not think critically enough of what they are learning. When I was young, I remember when I was taught _________. As I look back, I always had questions about the subject, but whenever I asked them, they never had an answer that satisfied me. I could never connect with the subject and fully understand the importance of it. This kind of gap between knowledge

It is imperative that a student learn critical thinking because not all answers will come to them through a math equation or through reading. It may take some thinking and analyzing to form an answer or judgement that they see fit. Critical thinking can be used in science, especially when asking questions about the world. Carl Sagan clarifies this in the article. “Can We Know the Universe?” by saying, “Accordingly, science sometimes requires courage – at the very least the courage to question the conventional wisdom” (1). Although it may be frightening to question what we are taught, it shows curiosity of the topic, and it opens a new way of thinking to the people around you. Science, in a sense is finding new information that can prove the world for what it is. It is a way of understanding the universe and how it connects to us as a whole. Thinking is a step forward to gaining new knowledge. The mind is not filled with the knowledge of the world, rather it is an empty vessel that we must fill not only by going to school, but by thinking critically about the things we are taught. Galileo Galilei’s letter to the Grand Duchess is a great example of this. In this letter, he vents his frustration of the non-believers who say his calculations of the Copernican model is incorrect and does not follow the Bible, when it actually does. He argues, “I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has [declined] their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them” (5). Essentially, he expresses that God gave us a mind because he wants us to think. It is such an important asset to a person because we have all these senses as well as the ability to reason. Education needs to focus on these two points because critical thinking requires the strength of both reasoning and sensing. Without