Learning to Think: An Educational Blind Spot
Most of us spend years in classrooms learning what to think—facts, formulas, doctrines—but very little time learning how to think. This essay traces a late but decisive encounter with critical thinking and argues that logic is not an academic luxury, but a civic and intellectual necessity in an age flooded with claims, ideologies, and misinformation.
May 2000. I had just arrived at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, located outside Bangalore city.
The campus looked clean and manicured. The buildings were unlike anything one would expect in a regular college or school. I would later learn that the campus had won architectural awards and attracted students of architecture from various colleges each year.
The first person to greet me on campus was Dr. Bobby, a dentist who had graduated from the institute a couple of months earlier. Under normal circumstances, graduates do not remain on campus after completing their studies. For reasons unknown to me at the time, Bobby was still there.
After an exchange of pleasantries, he said, “Let’s go to the library. I need to show you a book.”
My super-senior led me across the lawn to the library and straight down to the basement, which housed the main collection of books and journals. Near the journal racks was a small shelf. From it, he pulled out a tiny paperback with a pale yellow cover.
“This is the first book you need to read,” he said. “A senior introduced it to me when I came here as a fresher. In the same way, I now introduce you to this essential book: Paul Gamache’s Thinking Critically: An Introduction, An Academic Survival Guide.”
I remain deeply grateful to Dr. Bobby for introducing me to that modest 30-page booklet. It was an introduction to informal logic, a subject that ought to be taught to every student, well before they leave high school.
By that time, I had studied at Kendriya Vidyalaya and Chinmaya Vidyalaya, both under the Central Board of Secondary Education. I earned my first degree from Mahatma Gandhi University (Sacred Heart College). I later completed my postgraduate studies at Cochin University of Science and Technology, graduating with first rank and distinction from the School of Environmental Studies. My master’s dissertation examined oil pollution in Cochin Harbour. Subsequently, in preparation for research, I earned a Diploma in Programming and Systems Design. And yet, across this long academic journey, I was never formally introduced to informal logic or critical thinking—the foundational tools of disciplined, scientific reasoning. Ironically, I encountered them for the first time at a theological institute, that too, through a former student.
Informal logic deserves a place in every school curriculum. It equips students to recognize arguments, break them down into their constituent parts, examine underlying assumptions, and assess whether conclusions actually follow from premises.
We are surrounded by truth claims every day. Governments, political movements, corporations, media organizations, activists, and cultural influencers all make assertions about how the world is and how it ought to be. Every such claim rests – explicitly or implicitly – on an argument.
Yet many belief systems, whether religious, political, ideological, or even academic, resist sustained critical scrutiny. In some institutional cultures, questioning is subtly discouraged. Certain questions are deemed unnecessary, disruptive, or impolite. Intellectual conformity is often rewarded more readily than intellectual courage.
Why should any domain of belief be exempt from logical evaluation? Some beliefs are better supported by evidence and reasoning than others. In a healthy intellectual ecosystem, weak ideas are refined, revised, or discarded through critical examination, while stronger ideas survive because they can withstand challenge. When institutions instead shield fragile ideas from scrutiny, they hinder both learning and progress.
Even within the sciences and the humanities, institutional pressures can discourage questioning of dominant paradigms. When methodological skepticism gives way to dogma, the spirit of inquiry that defines scholarship is compromised.
There’s a compelling reason why all Indians must arm themselves with critical thinking. In a country where the political climate is charged with nationalism, identity politics, and cultural pride, the absence of critical reasoning has serious consequences. We are immersed in a constant stream of misinformation. Falsehood is amplified. Competing groups fabricate narratives to discredit opponents, and these stories spread rapidly through social media platforms. In the absence of training in critical reasoning and media literacy, many people accept such claims uncritically, treating forwarded messages and viral posts as reliable sources of knowledge.
This is why critical thinking must be treated as a civic skill, not an academic luxury. Introducing students to the basics of informal logic need not take years. A few well-designed hours are enough to awaken intellectual self-awareness and set the habit of questioning in motion. In a democratic society, this may be one of the most important forms of education we can offer.
In response to this need, I conduct Art of Thinking workshops for students and the general public. These workshops are flexible and can be adapted for high school students, college students, church congregations, or community groups. They are usually offered in English, but I also conduct them in Malayalam. A brief introduction to critical thinking can be delivered in a couple of hours, while a more detailed program—including structured lessons on common logical fallacies—typically runs for a half day, spanning four to five hours. Those interested in hosting such a workshop in their school, college, or community are welcome to invite me.
A Word To Christians
A word must also be said to Christians themselves. Among some communities, there persists a strain of anti-intellectualism. Higher education is sometimes deemed a dangerous precursor to pride. Obviously, they misread the Bible verse which says, “knowledge puffs up.” They view logic and critical thinking with suspicion. This suspicion is historically unfounded.
Disciplined logical reasoning was not imposed on Christianity from outside; it was cultivated within it. Medieval Christian scholars developed formal logic and rigorous methods of inquiry that later shaped the Enlightenment and helped pave the way for the scientific and industrial revolutions. Nations that shunned critical thinking were left behind.
Christianity also possesses one of the most robust traditions of textual scrutiny in human history. No other sacred text has been examined, debated, translated, and analyzed as extensively as the Bible. Christian theology has long employed critical thinking—historical analysis, logical coherence, and reasoned argument—not to weaken faith, but to deepen understanding. Far from being unchristian, serious thinking is one of Christianity’s enduring intellectual achievements.
For Further Reading
Graham Priest. Logic: A Very Short Introduction 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Deborah J. Bennett. Logic Made Easy. W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.
Rodney Stark. The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success. Random House, 2005.