We are switching gears just a tad and wrapping up our study of history in the modern era by taking a view at history and our current events with critical thinking skills. First we’ll learn what critical thinking is and then we’ll practice applying it to events of this modern era of history.
STUDY AND LEARN
So what do I mean when I say “critical thinking”? Critical thinking is an essential life skill that helps you analyze information, make informed decisions, and solve problems effectively. I think that practicing critical thinking + identifying true principles + relying on the guidance of the spirit are the only ways to stay afloat when you live in the digital age.
One method for thinking about things critically is called the Socratic Method. This was developed a LONG time ago by Socrates and is used to this day. Watch this video for a quick introduction to the Socratic Method.
If you are practicing critical thinking then you aren’t getting emotionally hijacked when someone disagrees with you and you won’t feel insecure and shaken when someone shares something new that upsets your worldview or status quo. Critical thinking allows you to question your assumptions, consider different perspectives and try to understand the “why” and “how” of something instead of just accepting it or refusing it.
Critical thinking starts with CURIOSITY. You ask a question! Questions like: How do I know this is true? What evidence do I see to support this claim? Are there other perspectives I should consider?
For example if you follow current events you know that there is a good portion of the country that is certain Trump has ruined the global economy with tariffs. Another group is counting on these tariffs to create American jobs and strengthen the economy. A third group is probably bewildered and not sure what’s going on. So what do we do? Before making quick judgements, before repeating what our favorite talking head has said we need to start asking questions!
Critical thinking also requires EVALUATING our information source. Anyone can put up a website and claim to be an expert. It’s actually pretty wild how easy that is. Now consider that we also have very real looking AI fake videos and photos out there you’ll see that the need to determine if your source is credible is more important than ever.
Ask yourself: Who created this information? What is their purpose—are they trying to inform, persuade, or sell something? Is the source backed by evidence or expert opinion?
I think a good starting place is to go to the actual source so that would mean reading the study if your question has to do with science, or going to the direct source if possible when studying history.
I recall in the 90’s there was alot of advertising focused on how low fat milk and Special K cereal would help you lose weight. Guess who paid for the study? Kellogs (the cereal company).
Next you need to be able to pay attention to bias — not just of your source but in yourself as well! We all have biases — these are preconceived ideas that will influence how we interpret information. Where you were raised, how you were raised, your community, your schooling, things you are passionate about — these can all create a bias. Having a bias is not inherently bad (for example I am biased and think Utah is the perfect state to raise a family in and this bias is a harmless opinion) Bias is simply something to become aware of.
Ask yourself: “Am I being influenced by my emotions or personal beliefs? Does the person sharing this information have something to gain?
A simple example is influencers or celebrity endorsements. Do you really think they genuinely love that product? Or do they just get paid well to promote it? I’m not suggesting all sources are disengenuine but I am suggesting that we need think critically (spoken by someone who has been totally duped in the past!)
Critical thinking is also a tool you pull out when you need to problem solve! It can involve thinking of pros and cons and brainstorming. You can practice critical thinking by being open minded when you enter into a debate or discussion. Practice the art of slow thinking when your emotions tell you to quickly react — it’s easy to think fast and throw out strong opinions and emotion-driven responses especially when you feel like you have been challenged. Instead, slow down, get curious, ask questions and keep an open mind.
One way that is encouraged to practice slow thinking and the use of logic and reason is to work through puzzles! Like the riddles we’ve been tackling this year, doing an activity that forces your brain to sort out facts and to think deeply helps strengthen your ability to problem solve with critical thinking.
See if you can solve these riddles:
KNOW AND DO
Now that we know what critical thinking is we can practice applying it. FIRST Write in your commonplace book the answers to these questions:
When was the last time I questioned something I believed was true? What did I discover?
How do I decide which sources of information I trust?
Have I ever changed my mind about an issue after learning more about it? What led me to change my perspective?
SECOND Have a dinner table discussion with your family about these same questions. PLAN time for this!
Third Write a Poem
Now that you understand the role your own background plays into critical thinking and forming your biases and your worldview I thought we would do a fun exercise from Julie Bogart. This is her outline on how to write an “I Am From” Poem — a poem where you get to take a look at who you are right now, what has shaped you, what memories stand out to you. This outline was inspired by the poem “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon (read it).
You could say that we’re taking a look at YOUR history for a moment to see how it may play a role in how you think about the world around you (plus I love a good writing assignment).
Ask yourself the following questions to stir up concepts to include in your own “I Am From” poem:
Identify your background—ethnic, religious, cultural, nationality…whatever defines you for you.
Name where you live and have lived. Describe those places with a few words, nouns or adjectives.
Name places you’ve visited.
Name your favorite foods.
Select four adjectives to describe yourself.
Select a few adjectives to describe your family.
What family holidays and traditions are important to you?
Name the communities you are a part of.
What habits are your own? What habits have you learned from your community?
What stories, songs, or legends and myths do you love?
List two or three memorable experiences in your life.
Could be a happy memory, like winning a tournament, or an unhappy one, like going in for surgery.Name something sad or difficult from your memory.
What textures, scents, tastes, and sounds do you associate with your childhood so far?
Consider these categories, too: Who I say I am Who others say I am Who I aspire to be
**Write this in the style of the original poem, for another example I wrote my own “I am from” poem about my childhood:
Who I Am
By Marcie Jessee
I am from french fries and spaghetti for birthdays
I am from Narnia and Pern and Prince Edward Island
I am from road trips to Hershey and summer trips with the blind
I am from public transportation, McDonald’s on Saturday and grocery store walks
I am from tradition and faith and sisterhood
I am from Christmas magic
I am from singing the hymns with exclamation points
and singing the ones I don’t know with made up words
I am from the East and firmly planted in the West
I am from depression and conflict and silence but most of all
I am from gratitude and miracles and guidance.
Yours can be longer than mine but be prepared to share it in class and please write it in your commonplace book so you can have it forever.
THIRD we are going to analyze a current event with the eye of a critical thinker using another exercise from Julie Bogart.
I know you all are familiar with the term “red flag” in how it relates to dating and friendship. Today we are going to look for “red flags” relating to online sources.
Information can be presented on a fancy, legit looking website and be completly inaccurate. A reel on instagram can be spouting facts and statistics when it is all skewed and incorrect. Just last year I saw a reel of Elon Musk talking in a podcast setting about how surprising it was that the BYU football team was doing so well this season. After being initially baffled that Elon Musk followed college football and was commentating about it online I discovered the entire video was completley AI generated though it looked and sounded completely real. Yikes.
So we’re going to do some research using the CACAO acronym to help us (feel free to enjoy some quality cacao while you do this project, you know, in case it helps you remember the acronym).
C- Is for CURRENT. Is this information up to date? How old is this information?
A- Is for ACCURACY. Is this information corroborated or confirmed in other sources? How is this information collected? How do I know this information is true? Who else agrees? Who disagrees? Is this a commonly held belief or a factual conclusion?
C- Is for COVERAGE. Is there enough detail? Are there citations to support claims? What’s missing from this representation of the information? Who else has a stake in this discussion? Are they mentioned here?
A- Is for AUTHORITY. Are the author’s credentials easy to find and valid? Is this organization reputable? Who is challenging their authority? Do they have a valid challenge to offer?
O- Is for OBJECTIVITY. Does the source acknowledge multiple possible interpretations or competing claims? Is the presenter trying to get me to believe something? Do I feel pushed to adopt their position?
Now you are going to choose one of these topics which could be considered controversial current(ish) events.
Topics could be:
Tik Tok Controversy (banning the app in America)
AI Ethics (should AI generated content be labeled or restricted)
AI and intellectual property (who owns the rights to data used to train AI models?)
Social Media and algorithm-driven content (does this practice amplify harmful trends?)
DEI controversy (Trump removing DEI programs)
Meta removing fact-checking
AI in classrooms (there are lots of angles you could take here)
Trump tariffs (plenty of angles here as well)
DOGE and cutting jobs (or other angles related to DOGE)
**You can absolutely choose something not on this list that interests you. It just needs to be a topic that is a current event and have controversy surrounding it.
Once you have chosen your topic you will need to google it and choose an article that comes up for that topic. PRINT the article. You are going to answer the CACAO questions relating to this specific article that you read.
Write out the CACAO acronym and questions in your commonplace book and answer them! It’s ok if you can’t answer each question in depth, but ask the question anyway and do the best you can. Answer these questions as well: What did you learn from this search? Did you discover any missing information or bias? Did your own understanding deepen, or did you feel that what you know was never meaningfully addressed in the article? Journal about your experience.
FOURTH:
Next were going to play around with news headlines. Have you ever been baffled by someone who sees the world so differently from you? Like maybe they live in an alternate reality? This is really easy to run into, especially if you are into politics 🙂
Let’s examine how headlines are designed to sway our thinking in a particular direction (before we even read the article or click on the youtube video).
- Start by picking a newsworthy topic of the day. Local news, state news, American news, world news .. it doesn’t matter. Obviously it would need to be a topic that not everyone agrees on (so no articles like “Little boy rescues puppy!”, look at crime, elections, natural disasters, sports, arts, war, social issues).
2. Find four or five news outlets that have written articles about this topic. Look at national news, local news, web-based news or any cable television news.
3. Don’t read the articles yet, just screenshot each of the headlines. Put your screenshots into a google doc or Canva file so you can see all of them side-by-side.
4. Answer the following question for each of the headlines:
- What are the FACTS in the headline
- What mood does the headline inspire? (confidence, fear, worry, triumph, anger, outrage, hopelessness, vindication, suspicion, trust
- Does the headline make you want to read more? Why?
- Do the headlines have different emphases? for example does it emphasize details or people? Do they use adjectives when they describe people? What clues about how to feel do you think are coming across in the headline?
- Read a couple of the articles now. Are they similar? Disimilar? Do the headlines match?
Bring your headlines and answers to class, we will be discussing them.
BECOME AND SERVE
Critical thinking isn’t a magic pill for discovering all of life’s questions and answers. It’s a way to help you think deeply about the news, the statistics thrown your way and the decisions you have to make. There is so much still to be discovered and we really are learning line-upon-line as we go through life!
I love that the gospel of Jesus Christ holds up under critical thinking and that the very foundation of the restored gospel was a questioning Joseph Smith.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf has taught that “asking questions isn’t a sign of weakness,” but rather “it’s a precursor of growth.”
Sister Browning shared: “in our search for spiritual truth, we may reach less accurate interpretations if we rely exclusively on our own limited understanding, a sorrowful and unintended consequence of which may lead us away from the covenant path. And moreover, some questions may persist until God, who “has all power” and “all wisdom, and all understanding,” who “comprehendeth all things” in His mercy, provides enlightenment through our belief on His name.”
Finally, I want you to watch this classic BYU Speech. If you have seen it before, which is very possible because it’s one of my all-time favorites and I’ve probably assigned it before, then please make time to listen to it again.
Add to your commonplace journal how what you learned in this speech is tied into what we learned about critical thinking. Be prepared to discuss in class.
