At Valencia, we pride ourselves in that we focus most of our courses on the notion of Critical Thinking. Its embedded in our core values for students, TVCA (the “T” stands for Think) and most professors believe that they teach this to students.
However, one often-overlooked aspect of critical thinking for many is the challenge of listening to the other person. For many, thinking critically is merely trying to figure out something smartly or worse, only thinking about how smart they can sound when they refute another with whom they disagree. This is why so much of our national discourse seems angry, bitter and negative (or just check out the flamewars on the Internet…or comments from my detractors).
At least at Valencia, we know the principle of listening to understand the other person. In our rubric for Critical Thinking, one of the indicators is Presenting multiple solutions, positions or perspectives. There, for the most advanced person, that means being able to “explain, accurately and thoroughly, multiple solutions, positions, or perspectives that balance opposing points of view.”
Get that? It must “balance opposing points of view.” So, even if I feel strongly about a certain view, to be a critical thinker I need to understand the other side of the view so well that I can present both. What I tell my students is that you should understand the other side’s position better than they do.
Well, how do you do that? You learn to listen well to the “other.” That starts with respect, that as a human, their view at least deserves to be heard. Yet, in our country, that never seems to happen. Instead, what you see often is fear. People seem literally afraid to hear the other side, especially when that view cuts against the current moral norms.
The easy examples would be taking the “wrong” view on homosexuality, marriage, poverty, size of government, guns, violence, abortion and global warming. I have a great example of this last point.
Now, most of my friends know that I make no claims about science. It was my least favorite subject, so when I am in that arena, I lean on other experts, people with training and education in the field. Like many people, I have been very interested in the concerns about global warming, or is it now only called global climate change?
One expert that I have found is Dr. Roy Spencer. A problem though is that he is one of the “evil deniers” about global climate change. Actually, that’s not really true…he only questions the cause of said change. I think, having read his work, he admits there is change, but that there has always been (and always will be) change.
Anyway, back in March, he was asked to be on John Stossel’s TV show as part of a debate on climate change. Yet, as we are often told, though the majority of scientists are fully supportive of the findings of the global warming crowd (as we are often told), Stossel could only find one expert willing to come on the TV to debate Dr. Spencer.
Yet, when the show aired, this expert, a Dr. Gavin Schmidt, actually refused to be shown on air with Dr. Spencer. Wow. Here’s a link to the video if you want to watch for yourself.
To his credit, Dr. Spencer later wrote “At least Gavin knows what he’s talking about.”
In the end, if you really want to be a successful person, you must be brave enough to listen to others. Being able to “explain accurately…opposing points of view” is powerful. And, it might actually help our country move through this crisis without the need to attack one another, or have the government spy on us.