You will all have seen some of the recent publicity around Harper Neilsen’s protest in relation to standing for the Australian national anthem.
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I must admit I have found some of the publicity upsetting. We all talk about the importance of teaching children to think for themselves.
Critical thinking is claimed to be one of the most important skills employers seek in their employees (or at least that is what they say – Alvesson and Spicer suggest that the reality is the opposite of the rhetoric!).
Critical thinkers don’t take what they see/hear/read at face value. They think about all sides of an argument. They seek further information to help them understand each perspective (what in academia we call research skills).
They weigh up what they see are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the positions. They think about their own values and beliefs (what they believe is important) and figure out how these fit with the strengths and weaknesses they have identified.
After all this intellectual effort (and it can be a real effort at times), they make a decision. Decisions made after critical thinking tend to be sounder and actions arising from these decisions tend to be much more effective.
Critical thinking enabled Newton to lay the foundation for gravitational science.
Critical thinkers don’t always follow the majority – in fact challenging the majority position is often the most important thing we can do to enable our society to evolve. It was through thinking critically that Galileo changed the way we think about our universe.
Critical thinking enabled Newton to lay the foundation for gravitational science. Einstein’s critical thinking enabled Newton’s understandings of physics to be superseded by ideas of relativity we still use today.
Critical thinking has to be learned – if we are not offered opportunities as children to think critically then we will grow into adults who do not know how.
Adults who do not think critically automatically follow the latest trends, even if they don’t like them. They do as they are told without question – and here I note that obeying orders (the Nuremberg defence – Nuremberg Principle IV) is usually not accepted as an excuse for behaving illegally. Adults are expected to think for themselves and make choices based on their thinking.
Much of the comment around Harper Neilsen’s protest indicates that there are many in our society who appear to believe that children should not think for themselves. Or perhaps these critics believe children should think for themselves but only if the conclusion they come to is the conclusion they, the critics, believe is right.
That brings to mind a line from Animal Farm: “No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”
And of course, if children make a decision that disagrees with that of an adult, then apparently it is perfectly appropriate to respond violently, offering, for example “a kick up the backside” (Pauline Hanson) to reinforce the message that children ought to behave exactly as we say.
In the end, it doesn’t matter if we agree with Harper Neilsen’s position or not, what matters is the position stated in another famous quote: Hall, in The Friends of Voltaire, wrote "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Good on you, Harper.
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