“Mommy, why do I have to go to school? How can I become a princess when I get older? What does sorry mean? When can I stay up later at night?” When we were all younger, we asked a million questions about everything, all the time. Little did we know at the time, that was the first to step to critical thinking.
To me, critical thinking is when you come to a conclusion based on some facts, personal experience, personal opinion, popular opinion and outside of the box thinking. When it comes to this type of thinking, you are never wrong. You simply have an idea. People can disagree but, it is never completely wrong. For example, if you think that you will do better on a test if you use the same pencil on the test that you used when you took notes, then you are right, as long as it works for you. That doesn't mean that someone else who thinks that strategy will not work is wrong either. It is simply how you got to your conclusion that is important. If the strategy with the pencil has worked for you in the past, and you have rational reasoning as to why you think it works for you, that is critical thinking at its best.
Critical thinking is a good skill to have but, it is hard to develop. Especially within a strict high school curriculum. Most students are used to having an idea and then supporting it with multiple facts and surveys, as we all did in high school. We were never in any critical thinking classes and we were rarely apart of critical thinking discussions. Class arguments and debates were much more common. By the time we reach college, most of us are afraid to voice an opinion without facts because, we don't want to be wrong. 
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