TEHT....: Critical Thinking

Teaching English, How To....
Essential Ideas

Question: What's a good technique to use when introducing students to critical thinking?

Answer: Give the students a copy of the following essay--or read it to them.

The following essay was taken from an article by Michael C. Flanigan entitled, "Semantics and Critical Reading." English Journal, September 1966, pp. 714-719. Reprinted with permission from the National Council of Teachers of English.

Teen-Age Corruption
By Mentor

One day as I was walking through the halls of our school, I saw a young girl standing at her locker swearing quite loudly because her lock was stuck. I walked over to her and asked her if she could refrain from using foul language in the halls. Just as I made my statement, two other students approached and came to the defense of the girl. All three students were obnoxious in their attitude and were in every way disrespectful. It is this kind of disrespect, foul language, and cliquishness that typifies the low moral tone of the teen-agers of today.

Teen-agers are probably the most corrupt segment existing in our society. Most of this corruption is due to the fact that spineless, ill-informed, and irresponsible adults who pretend to be educated coddle these sickening children. In our schools, churches, homes, courts and businesses, so-called well-meaning idiots say that teen-agers must have a chance at free expression and must be dealt with kindly because they are going through a difficult period of life. They say teen-agers are socially maladjusted because of problems that disturbed these children when they were infants and because our world is insecure. These statements are rubbish.

Teen-agers must be dealt with in the same fashion as any other criminal or immoral group in our society. They must be shown firmness and must be shown that our democratic society will not tolerate their corruption. We must not try simply to understand them, but must deal with them swiftly and efficiently. Psychologists, such as E. P. Thompson of the Committee for Teen-Age Guidance, state that teenagers are basically moral and that the crime and immorality that they demonstrate is but an expression of their insecurity. Mr. Thompson had better wake up. His statement is completely false because he follows the policies of a misguided left-wing organization. He is so worried about keeping his job as a psychologist that he cannot face the question directly. He is a poor authority because he has no children who are teen-agers and he lives in the ivory tower of the academic world. If he would ever leave the confines of the library and walk out into the truth of day, he could see the evil that spreads over our country.

Any human being who loves mankind and dignity, and is able to think objectively or for that matter, anyone who is able to think at all, can see that teen-agers have reached the lowest ebb of human existence. They are human only in name; they are surely not human in the sense that the great Greek philosophers conceived it.

The real shame is that the violence exhibited by teen-agers turns our streets into a paradise for evil. Our older citizens are afraid to walk the streets at night. Our highways have become the slaughterhouse of the world. We citizens who really care about goodness and love must band together as an immovable unit to force teenagers back into the mold that their Creator established for them. We must move before it is too late. We cannot stand by while our world falls into oblivion.

Copyright (1966) by the National Council of Teachers of English. Reprinted with permission.

Next: How I used this essay to introduce students to critical thinking.