The highlight of my week was unquestionably being interviewed yesterday by budding author Micah Siegel as part of the research for his book on critical thinking and its troubling absence from western education systems.
At THIRTEEN years old, Micah is a teenager on an unusual mission.
He dropped out of school to go “on a journey of self-discovery,” and founded his own school called the Rogue Scholars Academy.
Whereas some in my network might think, “Oh my goodness – that young boy should be in the public school system,” I say, “Good on you, Micah!”
I am looking forward to seeing the book when it is completed, but for now am glad to contribute in a small way to his ambitious project.
I think my best contribution was directing Micah toward world-class critical thinkers/entrepreneurs Brad Hayes, a doctor of geology, educator; and Laurie Weston, a renowned data scientist running international geophysics firm Sound QI Solutions.
But I also shared how I believe parents can help raise children who become open-minded critical thinkers, as opposed to blind followers of authorities and their prescribed narratives.
Accessing accurate information is a daunting challenge in today’s misinformation-filled media realm, but, in my opinion, it is an essential element of critical thinking.
Most parents in western cultures are themselves not skilled in critical thinking, I suggested to Micah, as became obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic when a majority of healthy adults lined up dutifully for experimental vaccines that did not stop transmission of the targeted virus – which was not a significant threat to healthy people – and those vaccines carried the risk of myriad serious side effects. The trick, I said, is helping people of all ages think beneath the surface of important matters.
For example, non-critical thinkers would take the words of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at face value when he travels to a place where the land has been sinking from natural geologic forces, as he did last summer, and tells us that “surging seas are coming for all of us.”
Critical thinkers, on the other hand would look skeptically at such statements and do some research, which would lead them to understand that Guterres’s words are nothing more than a smoke-and-mirrors sales pitch. Those who have read Dr. Hayes’ cogent analysis of sea-level change (Sea level is rising; should we be worried? ) understand that there is really just one ocean – so you can’t have dramatic sea level increases in a particular area any more than you can fill up your bathtub to 3/4 full on one end and 1/4 on the other. Sea level has been rising slowly and relatively steadily for the last 15,000+ years, and the notion that the seas are coming for all of us is nothing short of absurd – “Portugues comic rising even faster than global sea level.
I wish Micah the best of luck with his book and hope he can help his fellow teenagers and their parents learn the value of true critical thinking.
(Rob Driscoll – BIG Media Ltd., 2025)
