What does critical thinking mean to me? This is the question I am to answer. However, with that question I am also asking myself “how can I answer that?” Well, according to Merriam-Webster, the word critical in correlation with the phrase critical thinking means, “exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation.” I guess it can’t get any clearer than that. But I’m still not answering the question; what does it mean to me? When I think about this I can only say that critical thinking is the ability to understand what you are reading while you are reading: making inferences about the text, questioning what you are reading and challenging the points that are being presented. Maybe I am way off with this but, then again it is my opinion and so far it’s treated me well.
I taking reading serious but when it’s assigned to me I tend to take it a little lighter. I still believe the reading is important but I guess I have a problem with authority. When I do read though I keep an open mind and tend to judge the text. This could be a bad thing because I can be reading something that is true but I always have my doubts. I don’t have greatest critical thinking skills, but I know they are there somewhere; it just takes me a while to get them going. I prefer to read for leisure first then really analyze the text. For example, when I first read the Harry Potter books I didn’t really catch on the Dumbledore was gay but after really reading between the lines I caught the innuendos. Yes, I know some of you may say, “You only know that because J.K. Rowling announced it.” But truthfully, I already knew. It’s not hard to comprehend after you really immerse yourself into the text and take note of the implications.
Not only do I try to apply my critical thinking to Harry Potter books, but I try my best to critically think in all aspects of my life. No, it’s not very cliché to say this because it’s very true in my situation. I think that this class will really help to hone in on my critical thinking skills. Everyone has the ability to think critically it’s just that some are better at it than others, and that’s how I feel right now: that my critical thinking skills are at an all time low. I believe that this class will help me to understand complex thoughts more effortlessly and have a clear understanding of what it means to analyze things intelligently.
Maybe at the end of the semester this English class will teach me to view the world with an open mind and more questions to consider. The world is filled with all kinds of questionable theories, people and animals. I’m confident that finishing this class will allow me to considerably think about and see the world in a more mature way as well as question what should be questioned. I know I won’t be the next Immanuel Kant, but maybe after writing some thorough research papers and learning to be a better critical thinker in this class I will be able to become some level of a philosopher.
