The School of Thinking was founded by Michael Hewitt-Gleeson

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson is a cognitive scientist and author of Software For Your Brain , ISBN 0-947351-1088 which first published his invention of the universal brain software known as the digital switch cvs2bvs or cvs to bvs.For eight years Hewitt-Gleeson and Edward de Bono collaborated to...

 and Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono is a physician, author, inventor, and consultant. He originated the term lateral thinking, wrote a best selling book Six Thinking Hats and is a proponent of the deliberate teaching of thinking as a subject in schools.- Biography :Edward Charles Francis Publius de Bono was born to...

 in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, in 1979 to teach 'thinking' as a skill. Presently, SOT is a free, virtual school, based in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, that uses a daily series of free emailed lessons to teach speed thinking, creative thinking, positive thinking

Positive Thinking

Positive Thinking... or Positive Thinking may refer to one of two songs:*Positive Thinking *Positive Thinking...

, lateral thinking

Lateral thinking

Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic...

, and new brain software which goes beyond 'critical thinking

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...

'.

History

SOT's initial mission was to get 'thinking' into schools as a school subject. Under Hewitt-Gleeson's direction, SOT instructors trained thousands of people around the United States, and 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."

In 1988, Hewitt-Gleeson started the SOT in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 when he conducted Australia's first SOT thinking lesson in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, in the presence of both Sir Ninian Stephen

Ninian Stephen

Sir Ninian Martin Stephen, is a retired politician and judge, who served as the 20th Governor-General of Australia and as a Justice in the High Court of Australia.-Early life:...

, the Governor General and Robert Hawke

Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

, the Prime Minister.