Help, Humility and Critical Societies
I love reading! I love reading anything from pop novels to theoretical physics, from biblical commentaries to Si-Fi. I have often read 3-5 different style books at a time, options for whatever mood I may be in that moment. Despite this love of reading, I have never enjoyed reading books that go into detail telling me what I should do. This is quite an obnoxious byproduct of my severe independence and desire to do it on my own and my way. Thankfully, I have learned to ask for help and have found that working together with others is a delight. As I began to read How to Read a Book[1] I was immediately annoyed and went into is begrudgingly. Come on, I have been reading forever, please don’t tell me how to do it. When I was able to put my pride aside, I came to understand that through the decades of devouring books, I had developed the first three levels of reading that Alders describes. It feels like common sense to me after all the years of reading. The best take away was learning the concept of syntopical reading. I am excited to gain a wide breath of resources and information to go deep in understanding. One of my strengths identified by Strength Finders is Strategic, which lends way for syntopical reading to be beneficial for me. I like taking in a lot of information, seeing the big picture and then finding a path through to make things happen.
I received a lot practical knowledge from the books on smart notes[2] and critical thinking[3]. I have all sorts of thoughts swirling around my head and never really thought about getting them out of my brain and onto an “external scaffolding”. My problems with forgetfulness and scattered thinking can be helped by putting the thoughts and information into an organized set place. I feel a bit embarrassed that this was such an eye opener for me. One of the challenges of my ADHD is that it has always been difficult to get my thoughts onto paper or a computer. It was much easier or more natural to talk about it. I set up Obsidian and transferred all my random notes into it. Seeing that graph of connections was amazing. I have found a way to write it down that works for me. Ahrens writes about how motivation is an important indication of success and that it is important to follow our interests. I am very motived by my research and very unmotivated by writing it. Now I have a system to help me get there.
Though I pride myself on my critical thinking, I must be aware that I can be intellectually arrogant towards those who are not critical thinkers and just accept what they are told, often without rationality or other points of view. How do I be fairer in my interactions with those who don’t or will not think critically? I am open to many different views and consider them all except for those who are close-minded.
I believe many churches follow this one-sided conformity as a basis of their faith. I have read many Christian books that led in the opposite direction of critical thinking towards telling the reader what to think. Black and white thinking is so much easier, especially when the community is just trying to survive. Sometimes conservative, simple, blind faith is all that people can handle. Is critical thinking only for the privileged? the educated? communities that have enough?
I resonated with the ideas of groupishness and critical societies[4] that foster critical thought. My research is focused on social healing and my profession is with communities of women who have not been without basic needs, such as shelter and safety. I used Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in my research workshops and recognized that most people of lower socioeconomic class are in those lower levels of the triangle just trying to survive. Is there a way to foster critical thought in the communities with just enough to stay alive. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how people experiencing low socioeconomic position can become critical societies that foster social healing.
[1] Adler, Mortimer J. and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book. New York, A Touchstone Book, Simon & Schuster, 2014.
[2] Ahrens, Sönke. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2017.
[3] Paul, Richard, and Linda Elder. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools. 8th edition. Thinker’s Guide Library. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
[4] Adler, Mortimer J. and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book. (New York, A Touchstone Book, Simon & Schuster, 2014.) 43-45
About the Author
Jess Bashioum
10 responses to “Help, Humility and Critical Societies”
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Jess, you had me with theoretical physics! I read the rest of your opening paragraph with a dopey grin on my face. There might have been an audible laugh at one point.
I appreciated your reflections on a segment’s ability for critical reasoning. It brought forth ideas around the fundamental attribution error and how that relates to executive functioning. Is it an inability of organization, planning, and problem-solving that leads to a low socioeconomic position, or is it societal barriers that restrict the ability to overcome executive functioning challenges? That is a question for your three-year (and beyond) project, not a casual blog comment. Thanks for turning my thoughts away from the more narrow topic of how to read books.
I am so delighted to have another nerd with my infinity for scientific possibilities.
The question you pose on whether it is the societal barriers themselves that limit critical tinking or the lack of opportunity for critical thinking that leads to poverty, is one I have been rolling around in my head for weeks now. You are correct that I will be mulling it over for a coupe years now.
Thank you for your thoughts, Jess. I resonate with what you highlight about those who are experiencing low socioeconomic positions and the question you pose about how they could be limited in their ability to become critical thinkers due to being in a state of survival. Yet so many of them have rich stories to tell and are intelligent people who have had misfortune but often have profound ideas of how society could change, but they can often be overlooked, and their voice is not amplified.
Whilst they may be in survival mode due to poverty and crisis and, therefore, their higher brain function (pre-frontal cortex) can be limited in neural activity, I wonder about how they can be supported to imagine a better life through reading and using their voices to tell their stories and fight for a different future. As I say this, it sounds like I am minimising the level of their struggles, which I do not want to do, but I am aware that when we can empower those in crisis to be able to feel emotionally safe enough to speak up for what they believe and assert their belief about the injustice in the world, it can open up a new hunger for knowledge and the ability to wrestle with solutions, think critically, plan with strategy and to fight for justice. This can then be motivating and bring energy, vision and purpose, which can also often be used as momentum to move them forward, out of the crisis.
What do you think? Have you seen that happen? I have a few times with those I have worked with. But not many, I would admit.
Thanks for the food for thought.
You are completely right in saying those in survival are often ingenious and have amazing insight. They are thinkers and have social connections. My heart aches when I see the toll that homelessness, trauma, addiction, and injustices have of this disadvantaged people. They hear the comments from the upper (and privileged) classes who say the proverbial phrase, pull yourselves up but your boot straps. I work daily with women who have been living on the streets for a long time and are now learning how to live in a home. The woman who has lived in a tent for 14 years, alone, trying to protect herself from assault and theft needs a lot of care to even learn to use a bathroom and not soil herself and stay in it for the rest of the day. The fear and trauma she has experienced has whittled her critical thinking to almost nothing. I truly believe, as you said, that as she lives in a safe environment and finds worth, that she could out think most. But she does not have the means to “fix” herself yet. The journey is long and hard and needs community around her to get there. My hope and dream is to recognize an effective way through to wholeness.
Living for 14 years in a tent is certainly a setting which would cause her neurobiology to change significantly, altering her ability to reflect, think, and process information in any way, let alone think critically. How devastating and unfair. It is amazing how we all can lose the ability to be rational and reflective when we feel threatened due to the overwhelming need to focus on survival and be hypervigilant for potential threats. All wholeness or trauma recovery starts with safety and stabilisation, and I am thankful for your work in facilitating that for many.
Jess, this is authentic writing. It comes through very naturally. Smart and relatable. Thank you.
There are many points of resonance here for me. I would love to set up a chat to talk through your what you are finding in Obsidian. “Zettelkasten for ADHD” should be an area of learning. PAUSE. I just did a quick youtube search and there are quite a few videos on the subject.
The final thought you shared left me wanting more. What are you finding at the intersection of critical thinking and low-wealth communities? What are a few key experiments you are hoping to try?
Thank you for the thoughtful question. As of yet I have only observed the strong correlation between people living in poverty and the lack of critical thinking. They often have strong utilitarian skills and can problem solve ingenoius ideas for surviving on little. I find that a homeless community has a unique and different culture with their own rules of society. This obviously involves critical thinking but is very limited by the physical needs and one-track cycle of thinking that leads down one singular way. My workshops really showed that lack of development in skills and education, low self worth and continuing in the patterns of their family (community) of origin have been major factors to low executive function.
Open-minded
Closed-minded
I have the same struggle. It is so difficult to work with closed-minded people because their minds are closed. I feel like Open-Minded people are people with whom I can at least reason. I don’t have to agree with everything, but at least there is a conversation. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on reading.
Well put, Jess, and I like the question on whether critical thinking is just for the privileged. I have interacted with communities who live on the margins of development, but they have great ideas to share regarding the challenges they face. However, drawing this out from them takes time, patience and active listening. I’m learning to do this more and more. Thanks for this thought-provoking piece.
Jess,
I love your honesty and bravery in saying what a lot of us were thinking: are you really going to try and teach us how to read at this stage? I too as I went into this reading assignment wasn’t sure how helpful it could be but as I read the How to take Smart Notes and started putting it all together, I realized that perhaps organizing my thoughts might make my reading, processing information and writing less stressful. As I looked at my school notebook I realized I had notes on things I found important or interested written all over, if only there was a way I could organize it all?! I’m glad that like you, I continued to read through and try and find the good in the advice we were being given because as we move forward in this program, I can help but be excited about how all the information I am acquiring will be able to be saved, organized and ready to be used in the future and as we write our final projects.