Promoting Change Through Education

No, I'm not saying that teachers should be social activists in their classrooms. This post is about a tool that educators could use to promote social change. The tool I'm referring to is the direct teaching of thinking skills.

Edward De Bono was the first (I think) to create a program of training in thinking skills. You can read more about the program, CoRT Thinking Lessons, at his official web site. The lessons need to be taught in more of our schools, as do the related Six Thinking Hats lessons.

Speaking of decisions, you may know of many ways that our minds can lead us astray when it comes time to make a decision. Harvard Business Review's latest issue is devoted to decision making. One of the articles - now I'm writing off the cuff and have no copy of the magazine - focused on psychological traps that can undermine our decision making process.

Maybe students need to learn about those traps and how they manifest themselves in everyday decisions?

I've recently read another book on thinking skills called Why Didn't I think of That? Some of the author's lessons on effective thinking could be turned into lessons for students in high school or college.

So, what is the point? Aside from just teaching young people to think more effectively there is a broader purpose, one that does really relate to social change. But let me start out my explanation by reminding you of the roots of human behavior:

1. Social pressure
2. Habit
3. Biology
4. Genetics
5. Psychology
6. Culture - nroms, beliefs, goals

The teaching of thinking skills will not change anything on my list. We may as well try to breed people to breathe methane gas!

The point is to intervene in the process that leads social pressure, habit, culture, and psychology to shape our behavior. Many of the decisions we make because of outside influences are harmful to us and to society. Consider smoking, gang membership, "keeping up with the Joneses", and suicide bombing to mention just a few examples. Giving students formal tools that they can use to examine habit, cultural expectations, psychology (their own and other peoples'), and peer pressure should do the trick.

The big problem with teaching people to think more effeectively is that we will, inevitably and by design, lose control over what people think and do. Maybe this is why thinking skills are not more widely taught in schools.

I still wish we could include thinking skills training, perhaps as a half-year of "life skills" training. Who knows what may become of our institutions, norms, and beliefs as they face more scrutiny by more people? If they can't withstand scrutiny from the people who live with them then they should be replaced!