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High School Kids' Critical Thinking Course

Schools do not teach CT. Parents are not enabled either. We're here to help...a first for SA.

College Friends

Why kids?

Kids go through some tough decisions, and they act emotively. We also find that kids are okay with choosing between good options, but don't act when faced with picking the best of only bad options. This inaction is very damaging.

 

We believe that all of us go through 12 (somewhat sequential) key decision points in our lives, and if we get these right, we thrive. When we get them wrong, our life path is bent downwards. 2 or 3 bad decisions and that trajectory becomes irrecoverable - you know many such people:

  1. Your social circle

  2. Education level

  3. First career

  4. Life/work balance

  5. Geographic location

  6. First spouse

  7. Parenthood

  8. Resisting (else managing) vices

  9. Personal development

  10. Entrepreneurship

  11. Health management

  12. Financial mgnt

Brainstorming

Some of the benefits of Critical Thinking skills

  • It is quite simply the skill of the future (see our front page)

  • CT is simply not taught at school, and in fact kids in SA only get exposed, tangentially, if studying Engineering or Actuarial Sciences (although some new degrees are emerging).

  • It is confidence building. No longer is one overwhelmed with information, but one is able to break issues down into manageable chunks, and understand them better than anyone else, often even looking intelligent.

  • CT teaches kids how to step back, and create logic that is resistant to peer pressure. This has been shown to be a key mechanism in averting depression in teens, where inaction starts a vicious downward spiral.

  • It is the basis of good communications and arguments.

  • We show how teamwork works.

  • Critical Thinking is often called Mindfulness for a reason; it makes kids impervious to misinformation; they simply know the  questions to ask

  • We teach introverts how to work and win alongside extroverts. Neither inclination is better than the other, but kids need to know how to use their traits best

College Friends

Our one-day courses

We offer a series of courses, from the basics that every kid needs, through to more advanced modules we only expect the more enthusiastic to attend:

  • MECE issue trees; how to think logically yet creatively, how to look intelligent when overwhelmed with data. Our exercises are re-designed for kids.

  • Communications; How to communicate with people such that they listen. How to avoid rambling such that your target audience tunes out. How to create a compelling argument. Our exercises are re-designed for kids

  • Life decisions; Here we use the above to run through real-world issues that the kids bring to us. Across a group of 30 participants, we usually find 10 common themes, and the kids get to solve and present on all of them in teams.

Child at school

Pricing

We're not cheap, despite deeply discounting compared to corporate. But do look at our facilitators...these are the experienced business people your kids will be exposed to, and we simply cannot go cheaper without increasing the attendees, which would reduce the impact.

  • Pricing is for each full day course

  • R2'500 per student (incl VAT)

  • Our classes range from 20-30 students, from grade 11 & 12

  • Courses need to be managed by the school, with a minimum of 20 students, where the school collects payment, and provides the venue

  • Courses can be run in the week or on weekends, but absolutely require a full day of in-person attendance
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