Critical Thinking is one of the competencies deemed essential for career, college and citizenship in the 21st Century. However, there is still a tug-of-war between what shape CT will take — logical approaches to issues or political analyses regarding domination/victim issues (also called critical pedagogy).
In the 80s thinking skills were still free of political tones and undertones.
These quotes are from a Dec 28, 1988 News Release from the Ministry of Education, British Columbia, Canada (25 years ago, a quarter century ago !) :
“Ministry of Education promotes thinking skills seminars
– The teaching of creative thinking in BC schools will be fostered . . . through a series of seminars for teachers
– as many as 80 teams of educators will be subsidized with grants of up to $1,000 per team
– the seminars, by Creative Learning International [will be joined] by guest lecturers Tony Buzan and Edward De Bono, both internationally known authorities in creative thinking.
– Education Minister Tony Brummet said that the funding is in keeping with the Ministry’s emphasis on developing higher-order thinking skills in BC students.
-“ Knowledge is growing at an ever-increasing rate,” said the Minister. “Our future citizens must be able to define the information they require, to discriminate between the important and unimportant, to set priorities, to make wise decisions while maintaining open minds.
“They should be able to ask imaginative questions, define and set goals and solve problems creatively.”