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owadays we cannot escape the need to be able to develop and compete if we are to prosper and survive in the global economy.

We need to be able to be active players in the international community and to be successful in international business and for this to be achieved we need professionals that are quick and smart thinkers.

This in turn requires that we have a system of education that helps to prepare our children to become these quick and smart thinking professionals of the future, but presently we are sadly lacking when it comes to this type of education in our country.

This means that we need to change the culture of our education. We need to change the mindset of many of our educators to first become critical thinkers themselves before they can develop and encourage critical thinking in the schoolchildren.

Our continuing obsession with discipline and strict order in schools creates a problem for our students and this problem leaves them and us at a disadvantage in the international community. Too often they are being left behind because they have not been taught to think.

They have not been given a chance to think and explore as they naturally should have as children growing up and learning. But they need to be able to think and question and challenge ideas for themselves. Our schools, however, still do not encourage this but instead continue to emphasize memorization rather than actual thinking.

Some schools not only do not encourage such thinking but also practically ban it. Children are literally forced to be followers only; questioning and thinking for themselves can leave them isolated and lonely. This is a culture of control and naivety that must be changed.

As an Indonesian student myself, when first entering international education and asked to analyze and then speak about a story that I was required to read, it was difficult to summon enough confidence to actually speak.

Almost all that had come before had left me doubting myself and almost paralyzed with fear to express my own opinions and ideas.

The fear of being wrong is a fear that can effectively leave us disabled. We are left without the confidence to just "have a go" and so "learn by doing" and "learn by our mistakes". We are also simply being denied the opportunity to practice the skills of critical thought and this is a terrible loss to us and leaves us trailing behind the rest of the world.

Critical thought includes the ability to think independently and with a degree of intellectual courage and belief in oneself. But such independence and courage is just not encouraged in our schools. Instead, students are obliged to sit passively and follow the teacher.

Questioning is not the norm in this environment and so the teacher's words have to be accepted as the full and ultimate authority.

Ideas are not to be challenged or even generated but are instead just to be remembered and repeated robotically.

This kind of educational culture leads to a false education. People are not being educated to think, act, achieve and succeed but are being driven and forced to follow an agenda that can be na*ve and insufficient to compete and succeed in today's world.

Critical thought in our schools is not to be feared but should be seen as a right and proper part of democratic thought and the development of democratic and fair-minded individuals that can participate and contribute to Indonesian society and go beyond our borders and participate and succeed there too.

We therefore need the development of an educational culture that is accepting and able to teach and enhance critical thought; not only for international competitiveness but also for democratic growth and societal improvement. Our failure to develop thinkers in our schools leaves our people prone to misuse and abuse.

Critical thinking can and will help students to become more socially and academically aware. When students are practiced at critical thinking they become able to explore ideas, theories, beliefs and arguments and they begin to analyze and evaluate so that they can be selective.

But critical thinking is not just about criticizing and complaining; it is much more about developing an ability to participate and contribute.

Schoolchildren are not just items that must be neutralized and ordered around, they are individuals that need to be nurtured and opened-up to the world.

Critical thinking creates the right mindset and environment for positive things to happen. It can encourage a sense of humility in a person and encourages the suspension of judgment while sufficient information is gathered to offer an informed opinion, idea or proposal. It, therefore, nurtures an intellectual integrity and strength that is invaluable.

But currently our schools fail to encourage discourse, discussion and debate. Curriculum constraints and an over-demanding curriculum in terms of content to be covered are undoubtedly significantly to blame for this condition; but our teachers too need to change and improve as critical thinkers.

Every single school subject of study can be approached through critical thinking and so curriculum designers and school principals and teachers should all think about how they can change and help build critical thought into what Indonesian schoolchildren do on a typical school day.

A child that is able to communicate with classmates and teachers effectively in working out solutions to problems is a child that is exercising critical thought. This skill, and others that follow, should be curriculum goals and expected or at least hoped for learning outcomes from years of schooling.

A child that has learned to propose and test and challenge conclusions and solutions using testing criteria has learned of critical thought. Gathering relevant information and assessing it for its value and worthiness is an essential skill. Raising questions and defining problems in the search for solutions is all part of the process.

The ability to think open-mindedly looking at alternative viewpoints and considering different ways of thinking about a single issue or item is probably something that we are not familiar with culturally, but we should, maybe even must, consider this.

The world, and all its issues, is too complex to simply hold on to one view and neglect or fail to consider alternatives.

If this type of learning and educational culture is developed for our children they, and our nation may have a hope of survival and success in a world that has little time for followers but rewards and practically seeks out leaders.