Why CoRT for Schools?

There are 4 key reasons for the direct and explicit teaching of constructive thinking in schools.

1: The real world needs much better thinking than it is currently getting. Constructive thinking is essential for progress. Economic and social development depends on better 'design' thinking. Most of the major problems in the world today will not be solved by analysis. There is a need to design the way forward. Many of the arguments and conflicts arise precisely from our traditional adversarial thinking habits.

2: Constructive thinking is necessary for personal life and the enjoyment of our values. The traditional ready-made solutions often no longer apply. In minds made passive by television and popular music there is very little practice of thinking. The result is behaviour that is driven by peer pressure (as in drugs) or despair (as in suicide). Why does Australia have the highest suicide rate in the world under the age of 24 years when the quality of life is probably the best in the world? Youngsters need to be taught to think for themselves.

3: Without teaching constructive thinking skills we waste a huge amount of talent. At the age of six or seven there is one gateway, which determines whether a youngster is going to be an 'idiot' in school, or not. This is the reading/writing gateway. For various reasons including dyslexia, ADD and other physiological factors some youngsters are slow at this gate and may be forever lost. If 'thinking' is offered as a parallel gateway then many of these youngsters turn out to be excellent thinkers with huge effects on their self-esteem and the way others treat them. This is a very important point. Those who seemed to have failed in school but did well later in life would have done well at the thinking gateway. It is simple enough to do with the basic CoRT programme.

4: The development of thinking skills helps even in schoolwork. Although the prime purpose of teaching thinking skills is for the use in real life, such skills also help in school. For example research shows that having a thinking framework for discussion helps discussion. Having attention directing tools (as in CoRT) makes it easier to explore subjects.