Our people are CRITICAL THINKERS A three-day road to common ground
Fostering a community of critical thinkers is at the heart of the Nipissing University experience. It is essential that society be able to turn a critical eye on itself, to ask difficult questions that serve to make the world a better place. Successful critical thinkers are able to empathize; they can look at an idea, a belief, an object, or an issue from a variety of angles and work creatively to offer insight and solutions. Critical thinkers are valued in every field of human endeavour; skills in analysis and critical thinking are lifetime tools for success.
Top Right: Dr. Douglas Gosse (left) and Dr. Mike Parr (right) Middle Right: Cover of award- winning book by Dr. Hilary Earl Bottom: Panel discussion on Boys’ Learning
Tis fall, every first-year student enrolled in the Faculty of Applied and Professional Studies received a copy of Joseph Boyden’s acclaimed novel, Tree Day Road, as part of the Common Book Common Ground project. Te goal: to introduce students to critical thinking and literacy, and to provide common intellectual ground for discussion and friendship.
Te book, about two young Cree men who enlist to fight for Canada in WWI, explores themes of interest to the Nipissing community including the clash of Native and non-Native cultures and traditions, the impact of war on those fighting and those at home, the horrors of drug addiction and the struggles of youth in an alien world. Boyden, who received an honorary degree from Nipissing in 2009, has garnered numerous awards for his work including the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year, and the extremely prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize.
In support of the project’s goal, every first-year course has an assignment or activity related to the book. A nursing class might discuss the book’s portrayal of WWI battlefield nursing or addiction, a criminal justice class could use the book to illustrate military law, and a business class could use the book to illustrate theories of leadership, motivation, and group dynamics, or how war impacts a country’s economic growth.
Nipissing’s Office of Aboriginal Initiatives has also hosted events highlighting the contributions of Aboriginal soldiers to the two world wars. Te project, led by professor Linda Piper, in partnership with Paul Goulet, a member of Nipissing’s Board of Governors and CEO of Ontario Northland and Ontera, is also running a Tree Day Road essay contest.
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