Barriers of Critical Thinking

Barriers of Critical Thinking Paper

Reginald Alan Guest

HUM/114

June 17, 2014

Professor: Robert Dubose

As a child, my hometown became my window to the world. From that world, what I saw, heard and felt shaped my view points and thinking. I absorb from my family, friends, strangers and community on how to handle different situations in life. From my family, thinking came last in many situations or not at all. One particular situation I encountered is letting sibling rivalry rule my actions and my thoughts. My grandfather’s watch was found broken and the last person I saw with it was my brother. I knew who did it and quickly informed my mother. My brother paid for my need to upstage him or do something good in my mother’s eyes. But in the end, I convicted my brother wrongly by jumping to conclusion quickly and not realizing my mistake. There was no thinking, no asking questions only my biases that passes judgment on my brother. If I had thought things through, I would have saved my brother’s pain and would have done away with the personal biases and clear the fog of sibling rivalry for me.

After leaving home, I had to deal with peer pressure and obtaining others approval which only confused my thinking more. By agreeing with everything my friends did or said to look good, not shake the boat and becoming a crowd pleaser. A follower, to part of a team outweighing everything I was taught and my thoughts no longer matter. Looking on the outside for approval from others had me questioning everything I knew was right trying to change my thinking to match my friends. Which I should have known was impossible if I had applied Critical Thinking to this situation. I would have analyzed what friendship meant and looked inside myself instead of out. I would have known no one should make another feel less important. My thoughts and beliefs were my own wrong or right I was the only one who could change them. If I had been honest with myself and really look and thought...