The Necessity of Thinking Skills by Eoin

The Necessity of Thinking Skills by Eoin - June 2018 Scholarship Essay

For my junior year I took the elective class AICE Thinking Skills, a Cambridge course. Like AP or IB, the idea of taking an AICE class is daunting to all varieties of students. However, it is a class that anyone can take and do well in and is in fact a class that all should be required to take, as it is quite possibly the most useful class any student can take during the course of their academic career.

Thinking Skills is a class unlike any other. Math classes introduce new concepts and science classes will teach additional information. Though these courses are important, there is little more to these classes than simple memorization and implementation. Thinking Skills is the only class that actually teaches students how to reason, giving them a useful skill that they will use on a daily basis. Thinking Skills is separated into two sections: problem solving and critical thinking. The former arms students with the ability to confront complex problems that they may encounter head on, finding a solution of their own accord, a skill which too many people today lack. The critical thinking portion of the course teaches students to analyze information and arguments with a critical eye, evaluating the material set before them to separate fact from fiction.

In a world where false new articles and conspiracy theories thrive, the ability to distinguish between the truth and lies is invaluable. It is a skill everyone needs, and so Thinking Skills is a class everyone should take.