2 Thinking for yourself

In today’s digital world you have the potential to connect to other people, places, information and ideas that take you far beyond where you are born or are growing up. You also have access to a wealth of information. But it is not enough just to have knowledge about something or to know stuff. You need to know how to think through all this information in order to make your own decisions and choices.

Figure 5: Image of a mural

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A large colourful mural of a woman in a Tokyo street scene, located high on a wall on a street corner in the Shankill, by the artists Dan Kitchener (DANK). © Gabi Kent 2021

Figure 5: Image of a mural

The thinker Edward De Bono (1933–2021) claims most forms of education concentrate on knowledge. The educationalist Paulo Freire (1921–1997), who you met earlier, states that education often focusses on delivering existing knowledge rather than encouraging ways of thinking and questioning. This combination can lead to people simply following the same pathways of thought as those around them. What both De Bono and Freire are arguing for is a more conscious process of thinking, in which people think about the different influences they are under, explore different possibilities and make your own decisions and choices.