Critical thinking - The skill of thinking holistically, critically and factually to form a judgement.           It still baffles me how this skill is not being taught to our children. The best thing to happen to me by chance in my life as a student was to encounter the subject known as Philosophy. I was so touched and impressed by the beauty of the subject that I even decided to repeat my years of studies so that I could study the subject at a more advanced level.   Studying philosophy is like taking a journey through time looking at the world's most influential thinkers. It is such a beautiful learning experience to understand the theories and thought processes of the world's greatest minds!   Now, exposing our children to Philosophy might be a bit overwhelming. To study and understand philosophy one needs to be able to develop skills in abstract thinking. However, this does not mean that our children can't be taught how to think critically!   Nowadays, we have information literally at the tip of our fingers. This is, of course, a very important asset for our quick lives nowadays but unfortunately, this is also making us lazy. We see it every day, people think they have formed their own opinion on a topic but the more you talk to them the more you realise they are just expressing somebody else's opinion and not their own.           It is of utmost importance that we teach the next generations to come how to think critically! How to assess a situation critically and form their OWN opinion based on FACTS about a certain topic.   It would be too long of a post to go into how this system could be implemented in our schools. However, if you are a parent, or parent-to-be reading this, PLEASE, start finding ways to inform yourself about ways to teach your kids critical thinking! Don't wait until it's too late for the system to change. After all, children only need to be exposed to it and creating this love and interest towards it would come automatically.   Critical thinking is not like Math or Science, it's not something you love or hate. Rather, it's a skill set that is useful in almost ANY situation and I can guarantee that your child will thank you for it in the future, and so will you :)