I don’t think billionaires are necessarily good at critical thinking. It’s not measured in dollars.
I do think we need a new dog thread, sylvan. 
Math doesn’t have to just be about calculations (and clearly, there is a way to solve for X to come up with the right answer). My kids took a class which had them building structures out of marshmallows and straws; un-peeling an artichoke before learning Fibonnacci numbers, etc. There’s no “right answer” when a kid is asked to figure out why bridge A falls down when you put a Lego car on it and bridge B does not. There are multiple answers.
Teaching the formula can come at the end once the critical thinking has happened.
Critical thinking teaching starts at age 2 at home. If you didn’t acquire critical thinking skills by the age of 18 then in college you most likely will not be taught how to critically think, rather you will be brainwashed.
Sometimes, there is more than one way to solve a problem or prove a theorem in math.
@gmfreedom , I think that’s a gross generalization.
A lot of intellectual growth happens in college.
I dunno–I’m not so smart as all of you, coming from NYC with only 1 or 2 IB programs out of 600 high schools. The public school system has produced a maybe not so many critical thinkers? With so few resources as that?
Still, it has produced a pretty nice handful of Nobel Prize winners (you have to look through this lengthy list to find the NYC high school grads: https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/new-york-and-its-nobel-laureates/?_r=0) , one or two or maybe a few more world-class architects, clothing designers, play and musical writers and composers, top politicians, novelists and poets, fine artists, you name it.
But not a single critical thinker. Must be the lack of IB programs. That must be the difference.
Even so, as pathetic as the school system is to produce so few critical thinkers, I’ll stick with “ordinary” public education any day. The kids come out scrappy.
Or as one NYC public high school graduate wrote in the world’s most popular musical currently: “They’re young, scrappy, and hungry”
“Just like my country”
@MiddleburyDad2 Intellectual growth does occur in college, but ability to critically think has to be developed before the age of 18. The biggest intellectual growth happens when a person finally starts paying taxes 
IME there’s plenty of private K-12 school graduates…including academically respectable/elite ones who lack critical thinking skills as demonstrated by several undergrad classmates, a relative, colleagues, and an idiot Ivy undergrad who mistook me for a TA in an American history survey course who ranted angrily about the “unjust C” his graded essay received and shoved it under my nose when in actuality, his TA IMO graded it far too leniently*.
While both good public and private schools do provide the OPPORTUNITY to practice and hone one’s critical thinking skills, it’s incumbent upon the student concerned to take advantage of them. If s/he chooses to do otherwise, the fault’s on him/her…not the school.
This was underscored in one conversation I had with an older college classmate some years back after we both graduated in which he was amazed at how despite taking the exact same classes, there were many things I picked up on that he didn’t and he wondered how I was so much better at critical thinking than he was as he asked out loud.
Keep in mind that he’s not only a few years older than me, but also graduated in the top 10-15% of his respectable Mid-Atlantic boarding school and was admitted to at least one Ivy…though one admittedly as a development/legacy. Yours truly on the other hand, was an urban public school graduate who graduated somewhere in the bottom quarter of my HS graduating class.
- And I said as much to that Ivy undergrad considering my 9th grade public HS teachers would have given that miserable excuse of an essay an F and required him to redo it from scratch.
Critical thinking is about to think with reasoning and logic, and also not surrender the ability to think due to peer pressure, the social norm, political correction, etc.
This ability can be nurtured at home, at school, or by individual’s own reflection.
My D is a NYC IB graduate, and I can say with certainty that she is an excellent critical thinker. With a strong emphasis on the critical!
@MiddleburyDad2 I don’t know how helpful they are. I can see the different outcomes of the two ways how history was/is taught in @megan12 school (post #12), whether it’s AP or not or the students get A/5 or not. @toowonderful might use the latter approach.
I like @blossom breakdown of the questions. I remember someone says that if you ask enough questions the answer will follow.
@Dustyfeathers Noble Prize winners should be good thinkers. If we figure out what private schools do right public schools can try too and for 90% of the kids. Or maybe, as a few posters pointed out, critical thinking can be had at home and elsewhere.
In our burg, if you truly want to challenge your child academically then you put them in the Public IB school. You avoid the $15k/yr privates at all costs.
Ha @Dustyfeathers – I’m listening to “It’s Quiet Uptown” right now!
How well a school teaches critical teaching skills doesn’t depend on whether it is public or private.
I’d also like to add that there are many activities outside the classroom which can help develop critical thinking skills. Some are common extracurricular activities–Robotics, most forms of debate and some forms of speech, mock trial, Model UN, Fed Challenge, Odyssey of the Mind, math contests which involve figuring out problems logically rather than calculation, e.g., http://www.usamts.org/ I’m sure there are many others.
As for schools…look for those that require kids to explain their answers. For example, at many schools, a US history test might have a short answer or even multiple choice format. For example, the question might be "Which was the most important battle of the Civil War? " At many schools, the students are expected to write the answer or pick the multiple choice “Gettysburg.” At other schools, a student would have to answer the question and then justify the answer. So, a kid might choose that some other Civil War battle was in fact more important than Gettysburg. If the kid can explain WHY that other battle is the most important of the Civil War, (s)he will get full credit for the answer. At in between schools, the only acceptable answer is Gettysburg, but the student has to explain WHY.
Which is Jane Austen’s best novel? Again, for many years, the short form answer was “Pride and Prejudice.” However, there is a case to be made that another novel–Emma is the most frequent contender–is the best. Does a school require “Pride and Prejudice” as a short answer/multiple choice? Or can a student choose a different one and explain WHY? In between, there is ONE acceptable answer, but the student still has to explain why.
In my area too, if you pay for HS it is a first fail of critical thinking, as I could, at a push, drive to at least 4 public, free high schools offering the IBD. The reality is that self selection keeps the kids in the far less competitive safety of private high schools as the real academic high fliers are in public schools.
The public IB schools are open enrollment for IB kids.
There is no type of school that teaches critical thinking better than the others, but there are factors that can help, regardless of the type of school. As many here have pointed out, the other students in the class make a huge difference. How interested in the subject are they? How lively are the class discussions? How much freedom does the teacher have to discuss certain “taboo” subjects, such as religion or sexuality? Do kids feel safe expressing themselves in class.
I was struck by the freedom my kids had to talk about these things in their private Christian high school. The discussions at the public high school my daughter had previously attended were more circumscribed, because of the concern about offending people’s religious or personal views. But at the private school (which accepted kids from all backgrounds), they got into great discussions on such topics as Buddhism (when a Buddhist kid announced that he could only stay at the school if he didn’t convert!), homosexuality, racism, etc. I think this was possible because the school took the line that said, “yeah, we have a Christian worldview, feel free to debate it,” rather than one that said “we have no views, all views are valid, but don’t offend anyone with yours.”
And yes, people were certainly offended at some of the views expressed at the Christian school. My daughter in particular disagreed with some aspects of their theology, but she doesn’t deny that she got a great education there.
Another thing that can make a difference is the amount of thinking time kids have. In so many schools, getting the homework done is like an endurance race, so there is less time for reflection. A school, whether public or private, that has decided to dial back on the homework might be more successful at letting kids think critically.
@Massmomm It’s interesting that as a Christian school parent you brought up the subjects of religion and sexuality in reference to critical thinking. I as a public school parent never even considered those two subjects in relation to critical thinking. Not that there’s anything wrong with them as subjects just that they would be about the last things I would measure critical thinking against. I just find that a fascinating difference between us.
@eiholi , then you don’t understand the IB curriculum.
you have to think in IB. almost all answers are written. it’s depth. no IB exam ever asked a student to memorize facts.
@Capecodder2014 , critical thinking isn’t about the subject, it’s how you engage with it. Those were just examples of topics that allowed kids to really form and deconstruct arguments at a particular school. Because they had freedom to discuss topics that are often not discussed, they probably felt free to discuss anything. Of course, most of their studies were on more academic subjects!
This is just my anecdotal experience. I am not attacking anyone or anything.
I went to a Catholic K-8. Critical thinking was not encouraged. In fact, when I tried to question or challenge their teaching of the bible or science, I was immediately shut down. Luckily, I had parents who taught me how to critically examine issues.
The public high school I went to encouraged critical thinking in pretty much everything. No special IB program. I took some AP classes (way more tests than classes). But the ones that were the most beneficial were my non-AP social studies and humanities classes.