As a teenager myself, while the immaturity of our age group is often greatly overblown (most of us are reasonable folk going about our lives), I’ve sadly had to witness some of my youthful fellows go down the rabbit hole of idiocy, immaturity, and poor choice making. This goes beyond my age group, though it does affect us most of all. Grownups too often lack critical thinking skills. Look at politics, look on social media, look at the 35 year olds who think driving drunk or driving while texting is a good idea, or who think that the earth is flat. 

We can change this. Critical thinking should be taught in schools from a young age, as young as 5 or 6 I’d say, maybe even younger (if the kid is going to a preschool or daycare), and presented in a fun and age-friendly way to spark imagination and organically and healthily shape critical, mature minds fast and well. Swaths of life possibilities could be gone over, trickling up in complexity with age. What questions to ask, what things to look for and look at, whathaveyou would also hold weight. Children should be taught first and foremost *how* to think, not *what* to think (though the latter does play it’s part, such as with sex ed).