LU Prof: Decline in Critical Thinking Spurs Decline in Civility

Over the years, I've noticed an increasing decline in civility on this blog. I am often told that I am at fault because I allow people to post anonymously. But I've seen that on Facebook, where people do identify themselves, the comments are equally ugly. Why is this happening?

The easy answer is Donald Trump. He has disgraced himself, his office and this nation with near daily epithets, some of them vulgar, in an attempt to marginalize perceived and real enemies. But this dumbing down of America has sponsors on both the right and left sides of the political spectrum. At the same time, newswriters are encouraged to be as brief as possible. No one has time for nuance. If it takes more than two sentences to describe something, it will never be read. 

In reality, several factors are in play. Dr. Stephen Thode, director of the Murray H. Goodman Center for Real Estate Studies at Lehigh University, focuses in the essay below on a decline in critical thinking. He has given me permission to share his essay.

The decline of civil discourse is the result of many forces moving in tandem: personal devices; social media; the web; the explosion of cable channels. The list goes on and on.

Recall when we were young(er). There were three network television stations and, perhaps, both a daily morning and daily evening paper (or, just one or the other). That's how we got our news and information - Uncle Wally Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, and whoever was on ABC (Frank Reynolds, perhaps?). If you missed the evening news, you got no news until the next day.

With the myriad sources of "news" today, and a 24/7 "news" cycle, everyone in the business is, quite literally, screaming for attention. Everyone wants your eyes, and, to be successful, they must scream! Headlines are written in an intentionally provocative manner; websites appeal to the most base of instincts; and, much of the content is superficial at best.

In tandem, there has been a steady decline in the capacity to think critically. To the point where, now, it is most likely impossible to carry on a thoughtful discussion with someone who shares a different view - simply because, in many cases, neither party to the conversation has bothered to even attempt to thoughtfully consider an opinion different from their own.

Over my 36 years at Lehigh, I have been deeply frustrated by two deficiencies in most students: 1) the inability to write a cogent paper of more than a paragraph or two; and, 2) the inability to critically examine their own assumptions or possible alternatives. The former is not a new problem, though it has worsened over the years. The latter is now so pervasive, I find it scary.

Throughout my 36 years, I have insisted that students in every class I have taught must do a lot of writing. And substantial writing - term papers, case studies, technical papers, and analytical papers. Nowadays, next to none of my colleagues requires writing of any depth (papers take time to grade which steals time from their scholarly research - the only thing valued by Lehigh today).

Last fall, I taught a course I hadn't taught in 10 years (it has been offered every semester by other instructors). I decided to require the students to write a major research paper (at least 20 pages) on an infamous real estate deal (for which there are tons of sources, books, articles. you name it). To prevent the inevitable "tomorrow the paper is due, so I have to pull an all-nighter" attitude, I broke up the paper into four pieces with each subsequent piece building on the previous work.

The first assignment was to construct a five-page narrative timeline of the events leading up to the announcement of the deal - documenting who did what, when, where and how. I even posted several articles to get them started.

The results were ugly. 60% of the students submitted a paper without a single reference - even though I had repeatedly advised them that they had to cite a reference for every event they noted. Only 10% of the students had as many references as I had posted (four).

I also advised them on the proper way to cite a reference, and, I emphasized this, to make sure the reference had a date and had been published only after an editorial review. Unsurprisingly, many studies simply provided a web link rather than an actual citation. And many references, either properly or improperly cited, were not published and were not dated (they were, for the most part, blogs!).

The next class, I asked the students (all seniors) to raise their hand if they had ever had to write a 20-page paper since coming to Lehigh. Not a single hand went up.

I do not wish to conflate my small sample of students to an entire generation, but it makes me wonder if most millennials can differentiate between fact and opinion. Or, care.

Here's what I see as one of the single greatest issues we face as a civilization...

When I look at the Greatest Generation, I have the deepest respect for their sacrifice, their patriotism, and their willingness to set aside their personal goals for the common good.

But, there is another characteristic of that generation that is equally commendable - they were problem solvers. Out of necessity. The everyday issues we face shrink compared to our parents' generation. Economic depression, families torn apart, world war to name just three.

How did they get to be such good problem solvers? First, by recognizing there was a problem that needed solving. That may sound trite, but ask yourself how many people you know who have genuine problems, but fail to confront those problems?

Second, by having the capacity to work through various possible solutions to the problem, weighing the pluses and minuses of each possible solution.

Third, by recognizing that (most of the time) no solution is perfect. Or, without risks. But, neither is an excuse to avoid trying to solve the problem.

This where critical thinking comes into play. If a person is accustomed to living in an echo chamber and only associates with like-minded people, the ability to think critically withers and dies. Then, when a problem arises, they have no innate capacity to solve the problem.

Where does critical thinking begin? It begins by developing a lasting curiosity about the world and how things work.

The best teachers I ever had were those who sparked my intellectual curiosity. One was my 11th grade social studies teacher Juan Carlos Ramon Rivera y Martinez el Segundo - known to us simply as “Mr. Rivera.” He was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in Spanish Harlem. Mr. Rivera loved American history. But not just textbook American history. American history seen through the eyes of those who had lived it. In that single class, we learned about Manifest Destiny by reading The Year of Decision:1846 by Bernard DeVoto, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. We studied the Robber Barons through archival newspapers. We studied the labor movement through first person stories about people like John L. Lewis and Walter Reuther.

Mr. Rivera himself never revealed his opinion on any of these subjects. Instead he urged us to develop our own conclusions by looking at both the good and the bad.

Once a week, it was current events day. Oh, no, not ripping a story out of the newspaper and writing a paragraph about it. Instead, he charged us with engaging in a critical examination of the issues. He demanded we not take anything at face value. My good friend, Bill Diven, and I usually teamed up. Bill had an 8mm movie camera and I had a portable tape recorder. We would make movies and recordings playing the parts of high-profile politicians. As this was during the height of the Vietnam War, we had a rich vein to mine! Bill created a fictional senator named J. William Fullo’bull and I created my own fictional senator, Barry Golddigger. Both were continuing characters in many of our movies and recordings. In one of our movies, we pretended Fullo’bull and Golddigger had been drafted and were in combat duty in Vietnam. We added sound effects like gunfire and bombs exploding. We loved it. Mr. Rivera loved it. The class loved it.

Teachers like Mr. Rivera are priceless. We need more like him.