Higher Education often preaches the virtue of training learners in critical thinking. Liberal arts colleges and curriculum and humanities programs are some of the strongest proponents of believing they have what it takes to train others on critical thinking. Being a product of various humanities programs, I can see some truth in that sentiment, though it is bit of siloed thinking to believe that one discipline or a set of interrelated disciplines somehow have a lock on the ability to engage in or to teach critical thinking.
Critical thinking, however, is not enough. It is not enough to know how to think. It is far more important to be and do, to have character and moral integrity. That type of critical being and doing is deeply lacking in colleges and universities. Our colleges and universities have done well to train learners on critical thinking. But couldn’t we focus more on the more needed ability of critical being and doing?
