To think or not to think?

A recent statement by the Malta Union of Teachers has suggested that the level of political discourse (or rather, mud-slinging) taking place in the local scene is having a ripple effect on young minds.

Which inevitably makes people ponder the nature of thinking in the country – politics often tends to bring out some of the worst aspects of local society; strengthening social and ideological divides, with heated arguments and disagreements colouring the debate.

The fact that this verbal animosity tends to spill over from political party leaders onto the public is not news in itself, but its effects on young minds can be somewhat shocking in the long term.

Indeed MUT president Kevin Bonello confirmed with MaltaToday that concerned educators had already called the union to report incidences of personal attacks among students. 

“Arguments and disagreements are only natural when there are elections, with children picking on each other according to their beliefs. The situation is, however, compounded by the fact that party leaders do not treat each other with respect,” Bonello said.

He was referring in particular to the recent occurrences of personal attacks and mud-slinging that dominated the news in the run-up to the local elections and spring hunting referendum.

“Such attitudes go against the very principles of education,” Bonello reiterated. 

“Politicians have a very strong influence on Maltese society and as such I think they should act as an example.”

It seems however, that Bonello is not isolated in his opinion. Freelance writer and blogger Josanne Cassar also recently published a blog post on the subject, where she sets off with the premise that at the spring hunting referendum a substantial number of Maltese voters had voted according to the political leaders’ choices, rather than their own, independently mulled-over decisions.

Although not referring to mud-slinging tactics in particular, Cassar too raises political influence as an issue that hinders critical thinking, with many people clearly accepting the words and opinions of their leaders as sacrosanct rather than coming to their own conclusions. According to Cassar the issue comes down to a lack of formative training in schools that should be teaching children how to think.  

“Our educational system is excellent in so many ways when it comes to academic achievements, but I’m afraid it is still lagging far behind when it comes to holistic subjects such as debates,” Cassar’s blog reads. She even goes on to suggest that the educational system’s emphasis on exam results comes at the cost of critical thinking. 

This view is in fact even shared by Kevin Bonello, who admitted that critical thinking was somewhat lacking in the national system and that these issues needed to be addressed to ensure that society becomes less easily influenced. 

“Notwithstanding its lack of power in the matter, the union has been working with relevant authorities in the government’s Learning Outcomes Framework, which aims to reform the educational system, starting all the way from kindergarten,” Bonello explained.

The fact that the formative childhood years are essential to developing a critical mind, was also hinted at by philosophy lecturer and director of the Centre for Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Malta, Jean-Paul De Lucca, who said that the main issue was that many people accepted old and new clichés without questioning them.

“In my opinion, the key lies in primary education. Children need to develop basic thinking skills at the outset,” De Lucca said. 

He added that the process would be easier if only people had a deeper understanding of democracy as not merely a right to vote, but above all as a possibility to discuss one’s views and ideas. 

“People need to be capable of engaging in dialogue by articulating their own ideas and listening to each other with as open a mind as possible, and that can only be achieved through a development of certain thinking skills,” he stressed.

De Lucca reiterated the importance of primary education in the creation of such open-minded persons. 

“Efforts need to be made in order to incentivise the best minds of society to embark on the profession,” he said, adding that ensuring higher earnings and stricter selection criteria could be ways of boosting the profession. He said that education needed to become more broad and far-reaching; giving as holistic a formation as possible.

“There is too much over-specialising at an early age,” he said. “If we want all-round thinkers, then we need an all-round education, to promote good character formation, ” he said.  

Associate professor at the University of Malta’s Education Faculty, Carmel Borg said that references to critical thinking constituted a fixture in most of the official documents dealing with education.  

“The rhetoric of critical thinking is ubiquitous in speeches delivered by officials occupying different positions of the educational hierarchy. Unfortunately, however, with exceptions, critical thinking is absent where it really matters; that is in school cultures, continuous professional development, school development plans, classroom pedagogy and assessment for learning,” Borg said.

Borg added that critical thinking was the last thing that crossed significant adults’ mind in the three-year run up to SEC examinations, where the main goal was getting good grades rather than engaging the world critically, systematically and intelligently.

“Schools are operating in a social context that is highly regulated, overly watched and polarised. Within the schooling communities, critical thinking, and the knowledge and actions it generates, is generally perceived as controversial and dangerous, both professionally and pedagogically.”

Borg explained that this intellectual vacuum that dominates school curricula is often filled by spaces outside schools that are very poor training grounds for authentic democracy and democratic citizenship.  

The local scenario stands in stark contrast to other European countries, which stress the importance of developing thinking skills through their insistence on certain subjects throughout their years of education, much like the local system encourages the study of Systems of Knowledge at sixth form, but arguably this is rather too little, too late. 

A recent article by French newspaper France 24 revealed for instance that French teenagers were required to sit for a compulsory four-hour philosophy exam in order to be admitted to university.

However, the study of philosophy is different, in that it requires students to answer questions like, “Can a scientific truth be dangerous?” or “Is it one’s own responsibility to find happiness?” by using past philosophers’ ideas to bolster their own, and not simply to look at the history of thought. The subject is however seen as vital throughout secondary school in France, and in the last year of high school alone it is a compulsory subject for all students, with those studying humanities doing eight hours of philosophy a week, and pupils studying science and technology doing two hours a week. 

Though the French system may arguably be too intense for comfort, it may perhaps carry some vital lessons for its Maltese counterpart – starved as it clearly is of mechanisms that ensure young people aren’t at the mercy of swallowing and internalising the buzzwords and clichés political leaders spout on a regular basis.