Imagine yourself in the 70’s and 80’s growing up as a white person in South Africa during the apartheid era…

What does that have to do with teaching critical thinking? Everything!

This is from the viewpoint of my experience and the experiences of some fellow white South Africans during that time period. I grew up in a time where the whites (by far the minority) ruled the country and had segregation of different races very well-established under the system of apartheid. Whites had all the privileges one could have in a country hampered by international sanctions in an attempt to change that system. We weren’t rich at all, but we had a black servant lady who would come to our house every day of the week in the town, cooking our main meal for the day, washing and ironing our clothes, cleaning the house, and polishing the furniture. She came every day and when we would eat the food that she had prepared at our dining room table using regular plates and cutlery, she, who prepared the food, would eat in the kitchen on the floor out of a tin plate. If she was lucky, we would have a bathroom just for her on the outside in the back of the house, but most households did not. She would not be able to use our bathroom and had to walk to a central location where only black workers would have their bathrooms. She would never be allowed to sit on the furniture she cleaned and polished. Servants were paid a minimal amount, but in many regards were not treated much different from slaves.

My parents treated their servants well, incomparison with others, and gave them some groceries and leftovers and even drove them home on occassion when it was pouring rain. On one such afternoon, I remember driving with our maid (as we called them) and my dad to drop her off at her home due to heavy rains. I was surprised at the house and township she lived in. The whole area was delapitated with houses built out of corrugated iron or sometimes some bricks or other things mixed in. It was tiny and the area did not look like a place I would ever want to live or visit! It was highly unusual to see any white person in the area. Other servants weren’t even as lucky as ours. They were also often abused by police and others, as came out later in the statements at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was instituted after apartheid ended in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the first black president of the country and black South Africans could finally vote in our democracy.

My life on the other hand consisted mostly of going to school, doing homework, and playing piano. We were not rich, but always had food on the table and a nice enough house to live in. We went to church weekly and lived “good Christian lives”. However, I never questioned the situation around me because as a friend of mine put it, “it’s the water you were swimming in”. The environment was clearly benefiting only white South Africans. We all had jobs, if we wanted them, all went to schools where the teachers were at least literate and most, if not all, had completed university training. We all could go to university if we wanted to, often with full scholarships. This was not true for black families or any others, only the whites.

There wasn’t just segregation between white and black, it also included Indians living in the country, who had their own area, and the Coloreds (mixed race between black and white, which was technically illegal). Everyone knew where their place was and stuck to it for fear of running into the police. They needed pass books to even move about freely while whites could go wherever they wished with no pass books. Blacks couldn’t own property or businesses. Indians could, but only in certain areas.

Our history courses taught history completely from the vantage point of the whites. It even had a whole religious argument of the whites being the “new Israel” and South Africa being their “Promised Land” so they were justified to kill those in their way of taking possession of land as they moved north and east out of the Cape Province during the “Groot Trek” (Great Trek), just like Israel of old in the Old Testament. The Dutch Reformed Church baptized babies into the covenant, even though we weren’t Jewish. We were part of the “New Israel”. As such, all these actions could be argued away as a religious mission. We learned about the Battle of Blood River and the Day of the Vow so often in history classes and celebrated the day annually as a Sabbath that it’s one of the only parts of my history class I remember. Everything we learned was just rote memory. Asking questions was not encouraged, but rather frowned upon. It was just part of how things were. God was on the whites’ side and everyone else wasn’t part of that covenant. Those who questioned it, were of course labeled as terrorists and they either ended up in jail or left the country, if they could, but even that wasn’t well-known. All this happened on a national level!

I’m all for people participating in whichever religion they feel is the right one, but the biggest problem with this situation, in my opinion, was that it was not questioned and the most basic of Christian teachings of loving our neighbors were disregarded and violated daily. As children, we never thought or wondered about how it is then that the majority of the country was just “out of luck” in a way. As I grew in the realization of what was going on, I became intensely motivated to teach critical thinking to my own children and as many others as possible. If kids aren’t taught to think critically about what they are taught and told, we will not have informed citizens voting in our elections and we will have adults who do not know how to know when they’re being led around blindly by someone else. I felt very disillusioned with the government and religion I was part of at the time and I believe that, as painful as that was, it was the best thing that ever happened to me because it became the impetus for the work I do now.

How do one teach critical thinking and when do you start? It starts with the parents. Parents need to educate themselves on issues, listen to both sides of arguments, listen to and read things in context, remain genuinely curious and open to listen to what makes the other side think the way they do and how it all affects their lives at present or in the future. This has many more applications than politics or religion. It is necessary for everyday life. All relationships need both sides to be open to listening. I love this Ted Talk called the Art of Listening. If we all could listen like this, our world would be very different. Another amazing resource is the small but amazing book “Turning to One Another” by Margaret Wheatley.

Teaching critical thinking is a way of life. Teaching it to children starts as soon as they are born and it never stops. They have to be taught to question everything…. even you! It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it in the end. It makes for adults who are so interesting and who has informed and independent opinions about everything. Be prepared to have them disagree with you on topics and be prepared to be challenged and learn from them too! It’s a gift you’re giving them, the world, and yourself!

Practical ways to teach critical thinking:

• Explaining why things are required of them in everyday life.
• Explaining why math works the way it does, the reason behind operations, not just how to do it.

• Teaching history chronologically changed my life. It was eye-opening and the world and history made sense for the first time. People always have reasons why they do what they do and it’s our job to figure out what that reason is… not just in history, but also in our current relationships. Therefore, I strongly suggest teaching history choronologically. I used the Story of the World curriculum as a base for doing that over 4 years at a time. I also loved the book All through the Ages to help in the process.

• Science is naturally filled with questioning and exploring, so if you just keep it open and not be scared of your children having questions that you can’t answer, science will be easy to use as part of teaching critical thinking.

• When studying English, it is also important to question different writing conventions and why they’re necessary. Some interesting books like The Road also has a unique grammatical style that can change how someone thinks about reading and writing. When reading books together discuss the characters and why they were doing what they were doing in the story. Ask what would’ve happened if they took a different path. Read silly books like the story of the Three Little Pigs, but told from the wolf’s perspective. Study poetry that definitely doesn’t follow regular writing conventions.

• There are so many more ways to teach critical thinking, but a fun way is solving mysteries, even escape rooms. The Critical Thinking Company has some great “Mindbenders” books and other resources. It is also very important to learn the basics on logical fallacies, which are listed on Grammarly and so many other sites. You can explore formal courses on Logic, which can be studied as well. It is easy to make a game out of spotting the logical fallacies, even and maybe especially in everyday newspaper articles. One of the best books I’ve ever read on the topic is Julie Bogart’s book “Raising Critical Thinkers”. She has lots of great tips and more ideas for specific subjects.

• Another great way to teach this hands-on is to travel and explore different cultures as you travel. There are few things as eye-opening as traveling in another culture with curiosity. Americans are known around the world for traveling but expecting things to work the same in the foreign country as at home. That is not what I have in mind when I suggest traveling. One has to have an open mind and be curious about the culture and places encountered to open the door for a life-altering trip. The goal is to appreciate how the other cultures do things and learn from it.

• Something else to teach children is to pay attention to the responses and sensations in their bodies when they hear or experience certain things. It could show a bias or fear that they might want to address.

The list goes on and on, but it all starts with a curiosity and openness, which children already possess. As educators, we need to nurture and encourage it without judgement so they are free to explore different thought experiments and find out for themselves where they stand and what they believe on different topics. With the advances in AI and the resulting fake articles and images circulating, critical thinking might be the most important skill you will impart to your children and more necessary than ever!

In our classes at Learn Beyond The Book, we use the Socratic method of discussions throughout, so that we can encourage and nurture kids’ natural curiosity without judging their questions. There is never such a thing as a bad or dumb question! The more questions, the more learning can occur. I believe this is a gift to kids to be able to explore with guidance and learn how to think through important things with caring adults around!

(Note: I don’t get paid for any of the recommendations, they just really helped me in my homeschool journey)