Critical Thinking

Personal Barriers to Critical Thinking 1

Personal Barriers to Critical Thinking

Personal Barriers to Critical Thinking 2

Personal Barriers to Critical Thinking

I register for this Critical Thinking Class to complete one of my requirements in General Education. Since I already knew how to think; I assume this would be a refresher class. How wrong I was to place a barrier on my thinking process. These past two weeks have shown me; personal barriers I didn't know I had. My personal barriers range from sibling rivalry, my own preconceived notions, surroundings, peer pressure, family, past experiences and envy. I will discuss some of these personal barriers below and how Critical Thinking changes my thoughts and how I saw things.

As a child; my hometown became my window to the world. From that world; what I saw, heard and felt shape my view points and thinking. I absorb from my family, friends, strangers and community how to handle different situations in life. From my family thinking came last in many situations or not at all. One particular situation; I let 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. Critical Thinking would have save my brother pain, did away with the personal biases and clear the fog of sibling rivalry for me.

Personal Barriers to Critical Thinking 3

Then I would have seen my mistake, my feelings to get even with my brother and I had no ideal how the watch was broken.

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