The problem with how schools teach thinking

Most schools say they teach critical thinking. What they actually teach is persuasive writing. And the difference matters more than you might expect.

Persuasive writing asks students to select favorable evidence, appeal to emotions, and be convincing at all costs. That's not thinking. That's more like advertising and propaganda.

Meanwhile, the world they're inheriting is drowning in information. Anyone can publish anything. AI can generate convincing-sounding arguments at scale. The ability to sound persuasive has never been cheaper. The ability to actually evaluate a claim, to ask whether the evidence holds up and the reasoning is sound, has never been more valuable.

What Whodunnit teaches

Argument. Not debate, not rhetoric. Argument in the classical sense: a claim supported by evidence and sound reasoning.

Each session, students are presented with a crime scene and one question: who did it? Working in small groups, they examine the evidence, build their case, and defend their interpretation against other groups who've looked at the same scene and reached completely different conclusions.

It's rigorous. It's collaborative. And it's genuinely fun. By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Distinguish between a claim and evidence
• Build a logical argument from observation
• Evaluate the reasoning in arguments they encounter every day
• Hold and defend a position under pressure

Why these skills matter

These aren't just academic skills, though they are that, too. They're the skills that show up on the SAT's verbal reasoning section.

But beyond school, they're the skills that determine how well your kid navigates the world. It's how scientists assess findings. How lawyers build cases. How thoughtful employees make recommendations and how engaged citizens cut through noise.

In a world that never stops talking, the person who can actually think, who can weigh evidence and commit to a reasoned position. That person wins.

About the instructor

William is an English professor with over a decade of experience teaching writing and critical thinking to students in the United States and South Korea. He holds a Master's in Education and has taught this exact methodology to middle school, high school, and university students. The Whodunnit curriculum is his signature course, developed over 10 years of teaching students at all levels.