Now It's Critical

For the critical thinking skills piece, I chose a paper written for the close of the tradition unit. The prompt for this assignment was: “Develop a 3-4 page paper that analyzes how a specific cultural tradition has been challenged, altered, or undermined, therefore having some impact on society as a whole.” For this assignment, I chose family mealtimes for my tradition. The subject has been all over the media and I am constantly seeing advertisements for websites to help get families together for meals. I grew up in a family that ate dinner together every day. I realized that, being just my husband and I at home, I do not sit down at the table for meals. Now that my husband and I are planning on starting a family, I decided now would be a good time to start thinking about how we will raise our children.

The analysis portion of this assignment was pretty easy for me to come to. There is an abundance of information out there about the benefits of having a family meal together. However, a curve was thrown into this assignment. The instructors asked that we consider an “antithesis” for our paper and work it into our text. I feel that this was one place where I showed strong critical thinking skills. Having to think outside of how I felt about family time was difficult. I feel that a strong representation of my critical thinking skills was in my antithesis:

“Some people would argue that family mealtime is not as important as many believe it to be. Without the proper conversation starters, many family meals can be silenced by the chewing and drinking of mealtime. Some people would suggest setting aside other family time when distractions are less likely to occur. Marino and Butkus state that in some cases of family meals, “parents dominated or controlled the conversations, hostilities were brought up and children's opinions were suppressed.” With children’s voices disregarded, family mealtime could be damaging to a child’s self esteem. A person could also argue that eliminating breakfast gives people more time for sleep and that the average protein bar is healthier than cholesterol packed eggs and sugary cereals. In addition, while the advancement of technology can hinder communication skills, technology plays its part in trying to correct the problems resulting in the dissolve of family mealtime by allowing helpful websites to become accessible to parents. With these helpful resources, parents can find all they need at the click of a button to create long lasting memories at the family dinner table. “

The antithesis was supported by using prime examples of the problems that could be had from family mealtime. The quote from an online article helped show the reader’s one problem that a family had during mealtimes. Critical thinking skills are also shown when other viewpoints are recognized, such as health factors and distractions.

This was one of my favorite pieces to write. I feel that the challenge of working in an antithesis to my essay helped develop a new level of thinking and created a much stronger paper.