Sarah Edelsohn: Are You a Critical Thinker?

Through out this field day experiment I interviewed two completely different people: a complete stranger, Melissa, and my Best friend, Kayleigh. When interviewing these two completely different people I found that I quickly made opinions on these girls. I already knew how my friend Kayleigh was to react to my pushy questions, but Melissa was a completely different story. I saw that I was quicker to judge my friend, Kayleigh, instead of the stranger, Melissa. I knew how Kayleigh acted while under duress; typically she is quick to anger and gets extremely passionate about debating topics she finds interesting as well as doesn’t bother to listen to additional information that might discredit her argument. I think that she is a very smart person but doesn’t stop to think about new opinions or solutions. I never really thought she was a critical thinker…until today. I was extremely surprised by Kayleigh. When given new information, she stopped to think about what I was saying and would respond to the new information given. When she was given a tidbit that she didn’t like however, you could tell that she didn’t like it and didn’t keep her thoughts to herself and would sigh dramatically as if to say,” I don’t like this, but…” I think that she has grown up quite a bit and can think for herself. While my original thoughts of Kayleigh where disproved, so where my thoughts of the Moorpark student, Melissa. When I first saw Melissa, I thought she was going to be very loud and have big opinions. When she started talking however, I found a soft-spoken girl who was quick to please our interviewer, Chase. I didn’t really see original ideas being formed, but merely a pleaser who wanted to keep Chase happy with her. While this opinion was formed, I was quickly forced to re-evaluate her when she refused to acquiesce on the topic of carrying a concealed handgun at the age of twenty-one. She was firm on her first impulsive opinion. I say impulsive because this number was pulled out of thin air. She came up with a number first, and then tried to explain it even thought she was mostly trying to explain it to herself. I think that while it is great that Melissa had her own opinion, she should have tried to understand the opposite side’s argument to be a true critical thinker instead of letting her passion get the better of her.