Indiewire picks up my idea of a Critic's Bill of Rights

[Peter Gutierrez]

This is a piece you might want to consider reading if you are teaching critical thinking/viewing/writing when it comes to movies and other pop culture media:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/critics-bill-of-rights

The idea here is one of redeeming the notions of "critical" and "criticism" from some of their more unfortunate connotations in the minds of students.

Oh, and here's the original post: http://blogs.slj.com/connect-the-pop/2012/09/movies/critical-thinki...

Excerpt:

While it’s difficult, though by no means impossible, to find educators nowadays who don’t want to enhance critical thinking skills, foster critical literacy, and generally build critical habits of mind in students, there’s a big reason why many kids will resist such efforts that’s rarely discussed: no one really likes critics much.

And that may be putting things lightly.

Yes, we know that critical thinking is necessary not just for deeper, more rewarding engagement with texts, but for education’s social-minded goals such as civic participation. The problem is that this isn’t the context in which students are apt to encounter the term critical and its semantic relatives, nor is it one which mirrors its everyday use in our culture.

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Thanks... :)