Tell Your Story
In Learning to Think Things Through (Nosich, page 162) the author
asks, “What are some standards that are most important in your life?” He also asks, “How did you acquire those
standards? [and] How have they changed over the years?” I will first focus on some general standards
that I try to live up to in my life; I will then discuss the Critical Thinking
Standards in the text and comment on the extent that I hold these important in
my life (and work).
First and foremost, I attempt to
live my life in accordance with Christian morals and standards as I have learned
growing up, and in my adult life through attendance at church, various classes,
reading The Bible, and hard-won experience.
Before going any further, let me state for the record that I understand
Christians have not cornered the market on standards. In fact, many self-professed Christians
appear to abide by questionable standards and morals, while others who do not
profess to be Christian live exemplary lives.
Also, let me point out that I’m not talking about The Old Testament
(except for the Ten Commandments) and all of the Laws of Moses when I refer to
Christian standards. Instead, I try to
live my life according to The New Testament.
Among these Christian standards are honesty, kindness to others, loving
one’s neighbor as yourself, loving God will all of your heart, mind, soul, and
strength, not judging lest you also be judged, forgiveness, and the overall
words and teachings of Christ as contained within the Scriptures. I grew up in a Christian home, where these
values were taught; I attended church with my parents and these standards
simply became the context for living life.
But as a child and a young adult, I don’t believe that I truly
understood the criticality of these values, nor did I make it a priority to
live in accordance with them as I have come to later in life. I believed that these standards were
important in my younger years, but I often “pushed the envelope” in day-to-day
life. It wasn’t until I suffered the
consequences of violating some of these standards, and learned from my mistakes
a few times, that I truly came to understand how vital living up to them is if
you want to be at peace with yourself, others, and your life in general. In a sense, I had to start all over in
learning about these standards and their direct application to my living once I
had begun to understand the mess your life can become by not living according
to them. As such, I have gained a much
greater appreciation of these Christian standards as I have gotten older; they
are not just “rules” or words, or concepts, or good suggestions, but truly are
important instructions for living one’s life.
Before I get into Critical Thinking
Standards, I want to mention three additional standard of sorts that I also
learned from my parents and grandparents that have served me well both in my
military career and in life after the military.
I call this first standard the “work ethic”, and I believe it is related
to the Christian standards that I discussed above. At an early age, from watching my parents (my
father, especially) and my grandparents, and through my own assignment of daily
chores around the house, I learned to work hard and to give it your all in
everything that you do, or strive to accomplish. Many of the old sayings come to mind with
this one, such as “If someone asks you to go a mile, go two.” Implicit in this work ethic is respect for
authority, which is also related to Christian values. I don’t mean any “authority”; what I mean is
what I would call “legitimate” authority, starting with God but also including
your parents, your elders, your instructors, and your boss. Clearly, when working at any job, if your
boss is asking you to do something dishonest, illegal, or unethical, you have
the right (even the obligation) to refuse.
In the military, there is the concept of a “lawful order”, which means
that your boss cannot order you to do something illegal (in accordance with the
Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Laws of Armed Conflict). If your boss does give an order that is
illegal, it is your duty to respectfully decline. But that is a subject for a whole other
paper. In general, one is to work hard
and in accordance with the boss’s instructions whether you are putting in an
eight-hour day, or whether you are asked to work nights and weekends on an
important project. I have always
maintained a strict, high work ethic, though this is becoming more difficult
with age; I simply don’t have the energy or the stamina that I once did.
Energy and stamina bring me to the
next two standards by which, although you couldn’t necessarily tell by looking
at me these days, I try to live life.
These two standards are health and fitness. I attempt, through diet, exercise, and good
sleep habits, to maintain a high level of health and fitness in life. This was relatively easy when I was young,
and I had much more energy, stamina, and inner drive. And it was especially easy to eat properly
when I still lived at home with my parents until the end of high school. As an aside, many things seemed easier until
I left home and began living on my own through college and even up through
present day. My parents provided the
boundaries, kept good food on the table, and generally made life much easier to
live according to the standards that I have mentioned thus far. Once on my own, essentially free to live life
as I chose, many aspects of my life became less organized and I realize in
looking back that I just thought that I would automatically live life on my own
as I had with my parents. But that didn’t
happen. Maintaining standards require
focus and work. I would come to learn
this later in life; although it may seem obvious now, it was not obvious in my
twenties and thirties. Now age 54,
having had three back surgeries, and also having developed Type II Diabetes, eating
the proper foods and maintaining good and consistent exercise habits has become
much more critical. Like much of life,
there is no “destination” when it comes to standards of health and
fitness. It remains a journey and
keeping those standards in mind as I live each day of life is incredibly
important. Let me turn my attention now
to Critical Thinking standards.
Nosich (Learning How to Think Things Through, Fourth Edition, 2012) lists
seven Standards of Critical Thinking: clearness, accuracy,
importance/relevance, sufficiency, depth, breadth, and precision. Not all are as familiar to me, nor do I
practice them, as much as I should.
Clearness and accuracy I have always strived for in both my spoken and
written communications. This started
early on in grade school and continues through present day as I write various
documents, reports, and letters, and prepare briefings for senior leadership in
the acquisition program office where I work.
During my three and one-half years in The Pentagon when I was on active
duty, I “went to school” on clearness and accuracy as I dealt routinely with
general officers. Generals have no time
or patience for information that is not presented to them in a clear and
accurate (and concise) manner. Importance
and relevance I have also attempted to work hard at through the years; these
two standards (or one combined standard in our text) are really an element of
“logic” for me. If something is not
important/relevant, I immediately question its value in conversation or
writing. Again, my military background
and experiences also emphasized important/relevant when providing information
and in making recommendations or decisions.
Depth is something that I learned about through school and my undergraduate
work, but graduate school and writing my Master’s Thesis really brought it
home. Not just the literature review
section of my Thesis, but also the mathematical modeling and results section
required significant depth of research and writing. Breadth is something that I’m more likely to
forget in my reasoning or writing. For
topics that I know well, breadth comes more naturally because I understand how
many things are interrelated. However,
if I’m dealing with a topic that I know little about, breadth is not
necessarily something that I remember to consider. Precision, closely related to accuracy, is
something that I value highly, probably (or especially) as a result of my
military training and career. The
ability to say or to report exactly
what happened, what you mean, what you observed, or what needs to happen is
critical to decision making. This is not
to say that the other six standards are not, but precision to me is the
hallmark of good, critical thinking. As
a chemical engineering undergraduate, I spent four years learning the fine art
of precision (trust me). But precision
with words is as important as precision with numbers. On the whole, I’d like to think that I
already employ these standards in my thinking and writing, but as I read
Nosich, and as I work through the assigned writings in this course, I am either
discovering or re-remembering how to actively apply them and (hopefully) apply
them well. I believe such to be a
lifelong work in process. I also see the
necessity of mastering these standards for excellence in leadership.
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