Last night we had the pleasure of hearing Gail Miller, one of the directors of the Critical Thinking Project, speak to us about the project and what it’s goals are.
The focus is on developing nations, education quality and giving tools to deal with dogma, witchcraft and violence. The underlying foundation is one of fairness and tolerance, using critical thinking skills to become less discriminatory. Dr. Christopher DiCarlo started this as a sample program for high school students in Ontario and is now taking the project to developing nations.
It teaches the same ABC’s that are in his book, How To Become A Really Good Pain In The Ass.
A – Argument – helps us communicate better, premise + conclusion = argument
B – Biases – knowing and understanding the different types , and acknowledging your biases. Some are cultural, and the critical thinking project tries to overcome these.
C – Context – you need all the facts before you come to decisions.
D – Diagramming – draw out your structure of argument. Assumption – Premise 1, premise 2, premise 3, Conclusion
E – Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
F – fallacy – errors in reasoning
They launched the project in Feb 2016 with a pilot study in Guatemala at 2 high schools. There is an emphasis that this is not to teach atheism but is to teach critical thinking skills only, so it is neutral in it’s approach. That has allowed for Catholic schools to also engage in the presentations. They have expanded from Guatemala into Uganda and have recently added areas in Peru.
To find out more about the project, to donate, or to help out with fundraising Ideas, places to expand to, contacts, website and with social media please visit www.criticalthinkingproject.com