How to Develop Better Critical Thinking Skills With Julie Bogart

How do you define critical thinking? Can you say you are a critical thinker? It's easy to claim you are one when you think you can understand other people. Many of us spend endless hours of research trying to determine the correct belief we should uphold. What we fail to understand is what critical thinking skills look like when we exercise them to their fullest. There's more to it than just being right. Being a critical thinker is pursuing the truth while having an open mind to acknowledge different views.

In this episode of Radically Loved, Julie Bogart joins us to share what inspired her new book, Raising Critical Thinkers. Julie discusses the truth and misconceptions about what critical thinking skills get perpetuated by our educational system models. She explains why people care so much about being right and the mindset we should adopt instead. Julie highlights the power of calling people in instead of calling out amidst the cancel culture era.

If you want to start honing the critical thinker within you, this episode is for you! 

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

  1. Learn the real essence of what critical thinking skills are.

  2. Find out the role of the educational system’s models in the mindset of always wanting to be right.

  3. Understand why we should be calling people in instead of calling out.

Resources

    Episode Highlights

    [01:53] What Inspired Raising Critical Thinkers

    • Homeschoolers were isolated before the Internet. They were one of the first groups to create online spaces to support each other.

    • The online groups Julie was a part of were pretty homogenous. But they would erupt into fights over parenting, religion, and politics.

    • The thought of people becoming hardliners about their beliefs online at the expense of their relationships drove Julie to make new communities.

    [04:34] Julie: "How is it that when we aren't face to face, in particular, and when we're online do we give ourselves permission to be such hardliners about what we believe reality is, what we think is true, what we think is right — where does that come from? Why is that different than in person? And why are we willing to sacrifice our relationships over a difference of opinion?" - Click Here to Tweet This

    [06:12] On Critical Thinking

    • Most people think they are critical thinkers. 

    • Our backgrounds give us a "logic story" that makes us believe that what we express is correct.

    [08:46] What Critical Thinking Skills Don’t Address

    • Julie believes that our educational system has caused us to be subject to the Internet's structure.

    • Our educational system uses an “information in, testing out” model.

    • Under this model, every question has a factual answer based on an authority and is accessible under time pressure. Everyone will agree when it gets presented.

    • We present ourselves on the Internet following this model without considering that we have different sources of authority.

    • It's no shock people don't align when they're from different backgrounds.

    [11:02] Julie: “When we are all coming from these different backgrounds, religions, ideas, experiences, and authorities, it's no shock that we don't align easily.” - Click Here to Tweet This

    [11:13] The Truth about Critical Thinking

    • What critical thinking skills you have should revolve around what’s going on with you as the thinker.

    • We tend to think it is about shooting holes in the other person’s ideas.

    • Take an academic selfie; ask yourself questions.

    • Recognize bias instead of dominating the topic.

    [12:36] The Importance of Academia

    • New knowledge emerges every day, so citing an academic source might not be the winning move you think it is.

    • The goal of dissertations is to find new things using previous research.

    • We have to come from a perspective of humility in whatever we cite.

    • Bringing academia may mean nothing to other people with a different source of authority.

    [13:53] Julie: “It's really important for us to recognize that whatever we cite, it's with humility — it comes from a perspective ‘This is what I know now with as much information as I have.’” - Click Here to Tweet This

    [14:56] Why We Care So Much about Being Right

    • Rosie's answers are because of its oxytocin type of response and its ability to feed the ego.

    • Being right gives us a vision of safety.

    • We want other people to agree with us because of our models of living.

    • We’re attached to being right partly out of survival.

    [16:27] Julie: “We want other people to agree with us because we've been trained by all the models of living that we're used to — education, religion, politics — that the winners get to protect their way and the losers don't.” - Click Here to Tweet This

    [16:57] Why We Should Embrace Differences Instead

    • Research in human dynamics shows that difference strengthens communities.

    • Differences let us account for more experiences. Trying to be right narrows our perspective.

    • Opportunity exists in dissent.

    • We spend so much time using our authority as a sledgehammer instead of inviting connection.

    [20:30] Maintaining Conscious Awareness Amidst Cancel Culture

    • Cancel culture is the belief that conversion is the only acceptable model.

    • Submerged internal perspectives come out in toxic and damaging ways.

    • Set a boundary. Remember that the alternative to getting it right is just getting it.

    [25:09] Call People In instead of Calling Out

    • Analyze your motives when you feel tempted to call out someone.

    • Influencing change comes through a relationship, not burning bridges.

    • Tune in to the full episode to learn how they handle parents’ dissent at the Brave Learner community!

    • Think back to values your position should represent.

    [27:31] How to Discern if Somebody has Goodwill

    • Take an inventory of how someone else’s position hits your body.

    • It's not always easy to tell. Julie has coped with bullying all her life, believing that her bullies may have had a point she missed.

    • It's a clue that the person only has an interest in domination when it keeps going, and you feel less good.

    [30:32] Choosing Relationship Over the Need to be in Agreement

    • Prioritize the relationship over the content of ideas.

    • Julie is proud that her team at Brave Writer sees people as three-dimensional.

    • Create room for contribution, not just conversion.

    • The antidote to the drive to be right is to have enough space for other views.

    [30:36] Julie: “The alternative to getting it right is just getting it.” - Click Here to Tweet This

    [37:45] How Julie Feels Radically Loved

    • Julie is a big 12 stepper. Higher power is meaningful to her.

    • Julie feels radically loved when she feels connected to others through the mystery of insight.

    About Julie

    Julie Bogart is the creator and owner of Brave Writer, an online writing and language arts program for students aged 8 to 18. A champion of home education, Julie created The Homeschool Alliance as a community for homeschoolers. She is also the author of the best-selling book The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and Life. 

    Julie hosts the Brave Writer Podcast. She has also created a fast-growing weekly poetry habit called Poetry Teatime.

    You can reach out to Julie through her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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    To feeling radically loved,

    Rosie

    Rosie AcostaLatinx, BIPOC Meditation Teacher, BIPOC Meditation, BIPOC Mindfulness Teacher, Author, Mexican American Author, Self-Development, Critical Thinking