Critical Thinking | jordanburgess

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education. “

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. He was a leader in the African American civil rights movement. King discoursed civil unions during this movement.

This quote to me means that education is meant to teach people to actively seek information, and conceptualize ideas, instead of implanting information in someone’s head to be regurgitated later. It means that critical thinking should be the goal, and result of proper education, and not necessarily just the retention of facts and figures. I also believe that Dr.King was suggesting that academia is not the only place to educate yourself, and that educational opportunities should be sought everywhere.

Martin Luther King, Jr. tactfully organized peaceful gatherings for the African American civil rights movements. He knew using brute force would only give his opponents ammunition to use against the civil rights movement. I think this exemplifies the idea his quote was conveying very well. This is because Dr.King assessed the socio-political climate of the time and devised an appropriate course of action to help spearhead the American civil rights movement.

Dr.King’s quote reigns true when learning new tasks such as learning a new instrument. While learning how to play the guitar, I was taught proper fingering and scales, but to really play the guitar well, I had to use my prior knowledge from learning other instruments to be able to recognize different tones. I also had to be creative when stringing notes together to create a cohesive song. Picking up a skill requires information, but refining that skill requires critical thinking in order to apply the information to new situations. Another prime example of this is when I first learned how to draw and animate. When transitioning from still images to moving pictures was very complicated.