Logic plays an immense role in critical thinking regardless of the specific content being taught. Logic plays an obvious role in subjects like math and science, but it is also extraordinarily helpful in understanding history, literature, and social science. All human knowledge is connected to some degree and critical thinking can expose students to the cross-currents between scientific discovery, social change, and literary responses to each.

Without logic and a nurturing of analytical thought, it is easy for students to miss the relevance of Charles Dickens or Martin Luther to today's society. The more students are taught to question and to think for themselves, the better are their abilities to find the answers without having them spoon fed. Thus they can also perform well on standardized assessment tests.

It is a fallacy to believe that students cannot score well on standardized tests without teachers teaching specifically for the tests. If students are taught the basic curriculum in a way that encourages them to think--by a teacher with an eye on the standardized tests--their scores can improve dramatically. By contrast, rote memorization can bore a student out of wanting to learn.

The Critical Thinking Company has been providing standards-based, educational products for over 50 years and actually guarantees better grades and scores. After a recent round of testing, 78 of the top 100 high schools in the United States, listed by Newsweek, have used Critical Thinking products. These products are not "edu-tainment," they are cross-curriculum educational tools that stress logic and depth of analysis in addition to standard skills.