Critical Thinking: Misunderstood And Underappreciated

Critical thinking is a term that is both misunderstood and underappreciated. Most people have a general understanding of what critical thinking is as the most common definition would be, carefully thinking through any situation through before coming to a conclusion. When in reality the term critical thinking means giving reasoned and fair-minded consideration to evidence, conceptualizations, methods, contexts, and standards in order to decide what to believe or what to do.
As I stated earlier the term critical thinking is underappreciated because people don’t realize that they use it every day. Any decision a person makes involves critical think whether they want to or not. I believe that critical thinking is an essential part of life and that the more you develop it the better off you will be. In law enforcement critical thinking can mean the difference between life and death. Being able to look at any situation from several different perspective and reached a sound and concise conclusion is a skill that is important for anyone, but even more so for law enforcement.
Ever since I was in the 6th grade my only goal was to one day become a police officer working for the major crimes unit.
Over the past 9 years I have tried my best not to diverge from that path, I said no to drugs and parting and other situations that might get me in trouble with the law. In retrospect saying no in those situations was one of the easiest things to do. But one of the hardest decisions I have had to make in my life was attending school at Lethbridge College. Saying no to drugs and provocative behaviour was easy, but leaving my family just seemed unthinkable. Lethbridge College was not my only choice I could have gone to Grant McEwan, Mount Royal or even Concordia, all of which are substantially closer to
home. This I where critical thinking helped me the most, I realized that I had to push emotion aside and look at the situation in a logical way. I thought to myself that compared to all the other post-secondary institutions Lethbridge College was the only program to offer the degree. Considering my age at the time (17 year), it would be pretty irrational to think that I would get into an agency after the two year diploma. On top of that I noticed that the tuition at Lethbridge College is substantially lower than that of Grant McEwan and Mount Royal; and even with student loans paying my living expenses, I’m still saving more than if I went to other institutions. And finally I realized that leaving home for the first time might be a good thing. I thought to myself that I should be more independent and that if I’m away from home my parents would be able to tell me what to do. After considering all the facts I decided to attend the college and have not looked back.