On Critical Thinking
In each issue of Critical Thinking, we interview HSS students and alumni who reflect the breadth of our majors and programs. We learn where each is at this point in his, her, or their life and how the experience at Brooklyn College has been formative. We also ask what "critical thinking" means to each one.
For the first issue of our newsletter, we spoke to two Brooklyn College alumni, Shayne McGregor (MA 2016) and Kat Thek (MA 2013). Each has gone in a very different direction since completing graduate studies in the Department of English, but both reflect the encouragement their education gave them to engage in the social and political climate of their times. Here's what each has to say about "critical thinking:"
Shayne McGregor, English (M.A., 2016)
"Critical thinking is important because it's extremely freeing. When I began to interrogate myself, the world around me, the people around me, the systems and ideologies around me, I soon learned that I had mostly been defined by textbooks written by people who didn't know me. The world had defined me before I was given a chance to define myself, and that's what critical thinking allowed me to do. It allowed me to define myself."
Kat Thek, English (M.A., 2013)
"Spending time in the humanities exposed me to a lot of well written opinions that I totally disagreed with — it was so, so helpful. It taught me that being articulate is different than being right, that "right" is very subjective, and to not mistake confidence for accuracy. It also taught me to respect (and fear!) the seductive abilities of well-written text and to constantly ask myself if what I'm reading makes sense."
Back to Critical Thinking — October 2017