To borrow Richard's tagline for a second:
Quote:
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"Of every One-Hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty are nothing but targets, nine are real fighters...we are lucky to have them...they make the battle. Ah, but the One, one of them is a Warrior...and He will bring the others back."
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IMHO, the same statistics apply to people in general. As Bailaviborita points out, being competent is not the same thing as being a critical thinker. So, to paraphrase Richard's quote and apply it to the civilian sector, "of every hundred workers, ten should be fired, eighty are just taking up space, nine are basically competent and get most of the work done, and the One, he/she is a critical thinker...".
My experience in the building trades, and my guess is that it applies to most other careers, is that the truly proficient and effective people are good critical thinkers. They might not be well educated, and they might not know what critical thinking is, but they have the ability to look at a fairly complex problem, tease it apart, weigh their options, and move forward on the best path. Also, they have the ability to recognize early on when the path they have chosen isn't going where they want it to go, and adjust course to get the desired outcome in the least amount of time. Partly these skills are a function of experience, because a good critical thinker can look at a task he/she hasn't performed before, use relevant experience from the past, and extrapolate a good COA.
To me, it sounds the same as what any good NCO or officer does, and I imagine what any good QP does on an everyday basis. As is frequently pointed out here, it's hard to divorce these skills from experience, because making the right choices often depends so heavily on a reservoir of knowledge built up over a long period of time.
Now, I don't know whether there would be more critical thinkers if it was taught more effectively in school. I do know that it is very hard to find people with these skills, and it would certainly increase the productivity of the nation as a whole if there were more people capable of critical thinking skills.
As a disclaimer, I'll say that I haven't really applied a great deal of critical thought to the following theory, but I'll throw it out there to be kicked around: I would argue that part of what makes America great is that, to a greater degree than any other country, we have allowed those with critical thinking skills to excel. I think a large part of what is loosely called "American ingenuity" is really just the freedom of those with the requisite talent to take the ball and run with it. In a way, the beauty of our system is that it is self-selecting. Those with the skills have the opportunity to succeed, and those without find a place to take up space. It could be argued that ingenuity and critical thinking are not the same thing, but I would bet that in most cases of ingenuity, there are some critical thinking skills involved.