Debunking College Myths: College Develops Critical Thinking Skills

Possibly THE biggest myth that you will hear about college, is that students come away with critical thinking skills.

That’s not true. At all.

I know, I know. Right now many of you are thinking what Homer Simpson said to Lisa when she told him about the Y2K bug . . .

But here’s the thing, no matter how much we may believe this line that colleges feed us to try to justify their outrageous price tag and outdated curriculum, it is OBJECTIVELY not true.

Critical thinking isn’t some vague, mystical skill you absorb by osmosis from writing essays and debating Dostoevsky in lecture halls.

Critical thinking is a structured intellectual framework comprised of concrete disciplines.

It’s not a vibe. It’s a system. A system that  involves discrete, teachable skills:

Now ask yourself: If one of the core benefits of college was imbuing students with critical thinking skills, wouldn’t this framework be the centerpiece of their core curriculum?

Instead, the required curriculum at most top universities looks more like Columbia’s: a salad bar of art, literature, and philosophy, and . . . more art, literature, and philosophy.

That’s not critical thinking. That’s verbal dexterity. Or at best, cultural enrichment. And while cultural enrichment may be important, that’s not close to the same thing as critical thinking.

In fact, a lot of what looks like “thinking” in college—literary criticism or pontification of abstract philosophy—is actually the opposite of critical thinking:

• It rewards rhetorical flourish over analytical clarity.

• It prizes ideological conformity over intellectual humility.

• It teaches students to defend positions, not to interrogate them.

Not only do ZERO universities make critical thinking part of their core curriculum, but they don’t even offer most of the courses that would be required if students wanted to cobble together the lessons needed to develop critical thinking skills on their own.

And ironically, by not teaching real critical thinking, colleges often produce grads who are very susceptible to ideological groupthink. 

They don’t know how to evaluate evidence, weigh trade-offs, or question their own biases. 

Students master the art of sounding smart but not the discipline of thinking clearly.

Critical thinking is not a side effect of higher education. It’s a skillset you either deliberately cultivate or you don’t.

Colleges don’t.