School of Thinking
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The School of Thinking (SOT) was founded by Michael Hewitt-Gleeson and Edward de Bono in New York, United States, in 1979 to teach 'thinking' as a skill so as to enrich the lives of people by helping them to become smarter and more effective thinkers. The school in the United States closed in 1989, apparently after FBI investigations SOT as a result of investors claiming that they had not been issued with any shares after investing their money.
Presently, SOT is a free, virtual school, based in Melbourne, Australia, that accomplishes its goals through a daily series of 10 free emailed lessons designed to help each trainee to become a skilled thinker through daily practice in speed thinking, creative thinking, positive thinking, lateral thinking, and new brain software which goes way beyond 'critical thinking'.
[edit] History
SOT's initial mission was to get 'thinking' into schools as a school subject. Under Hewitt-Gleeson's direction, the School of Thinking trained many thousands of people around the United States, and also installed thinking skills into school districts, corporations, and government organizations. Within five years, 'teaching thinking' in US schools had become, according to the New York Times, the biggest new trend in education. On January 9, 1983, the New York Times, in its Education Winter Survey, wrote:
- A major new effort to teach thinking skills is planned by the University/Urban Schools National Task Force, which will soon initiate a program in the public schools of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Minneapolis and Memphis... The School of Thinking in New York is the base in this country for teaching de Bono's theory, disseminated from its headquarters in London, which includes breaking out of traditional thinking patterns. This means trying to devise new ways of looking at problems... it affirms the belief that without specific efforts there is no assurance students will learn to think clearly." [1]
In 1988, Hewitt-Gleeson started the SOT in Australia when he conducted Australia's first SOT thinking lesson in Canberra, in the presence of both Sir Ninian Stephen, the Governor General and Robert Hawke, the Prime Minister.[2]
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the School of Thinking, the co-founders, Edward de Bono and Michael Hewitt-Gleeson, designed a new global initiative - The Family Learn-To-Think Project - which was launched in January 2004. This is a special online coaching program to assist families who wish to become much better 'family thinkers'. [1] It aimed to be the largest program in the world ever to teach thinking skills to families. The Family Learn-To-Think Project is free to all families worldwide who have an email address.
