Martin Luther King once said: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” I learned how to think intensively but not critically when I was still a student in China. After three-year study in the United States, I found out that critical thinking was extremely important for a student due to the fact that every coin has two sides. Education should not be just memorization in order to get pass the exams. On the other hand, one does need a common sense or basic knowledge to learn the new material or create something new, which means learning is actually based on one’s memory. Memorization is helpful for a person in terms of understanding or creating new things, but critical thinking is the key to really see things with an open mind and come up with an even better thought that might contribute to the whole society. Continue reading →