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There are a few schools that do have “critical thinking” on the curriculum. Critical thinking is a valuable part of thinking but totally inadequate on its own. It is like the left front wheel on a car: wonderful in itself but inadequate by itself.
Critical thinking perpetuates the old-fashioned view of thinking established by the Greek Gang of Three (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle). This view is that analysis, judgment and argument are enough. It is enough to “find the truth” and all else will follow. If you remove the “untruth” then that is enough.
“Critical” comes from the Greek word “kritikos”, which means judge. While judgment thinking has its place and its value it lacks generative, productive, creative and design aspects of thinking that are so vital. Six brilliantly trained critical thinkers sitting around a table cannot get going until someone actually puts forward a constructive proposal. This can then be criticized by all.
Many of the present problems around the world persist because traditional education has mistakenly believed that analysis, judgment and argument are enough.
Our success in science and technology comes not from critical thinking but from the “possibility” system. The possibility system moves ahead of our information to create hypotheses and visions. These give us a framework through which to look at things and also something to work towards. Critical thinking does have a part to play because if you know your hypothesis is going to be criticized then you seek to make it stronger. But critical destruction of one hypothesis has never produced a better one. It is creativity that produces the better hypothesis.
Culturally, we desperately need to break loose of the notion that critical thinking is sufficient. While we believe this we shall never pay sufficient attention to the creative, constructive and design aspects of thinking.