The following are points concerning Critical Thinking at USNA that were submitted by the officers, faculty, and staff of the Division of Professional Development prior to the Critical Thinking Convocation . Some are verbatim quotes, others are views that have been paraphrased to avoid repetition or to preserve the author s anonymity.
Midshipmen seem very reluctant to question anything.
Often, they seem simply to press the I-believe button. Gouge is the life-blood of the midshipmen. Critical thinking takes place when one has time to think about problems. Midshipmen usually don t have time for out of the box thinking. Midshipmen rarely get to take a course simply for the joy of learning something new.