All students reported seeing fish，but the students raised and educated in Asiawere sixty percent more likely also to mention the background elements like the plants，rocks，and bubbles.The students raised and educated in North America were more likely to mention the most compelling focal element：an especially salient large fish swimming in the water.those from Asia were more likely to describe the context：this seemed，to them，like a pond.
So why do I present these psychological experiments this morning？One of the critical goals of an undergraduate education has less to do with the specific content of any one course but rather something that hovers over all of your work here：that you are honing critical thinking skills.We will help you learn how to think rather than tell you what to think.
As the Report of the Committee on Yale College Education noted several years ago，some of the skills we hope to cultivate here are：
"The ability to subject the world to active and continuing curiosity and to ask interesting questions……The ability to subject an object of inquiry to sustained and disciplined analysis，and where needed，to more than one mode of analysis……The ability to link and integrate frames of reference，creating perceptions that were not available through a single lens……The ability to work with others in such a way as to construct the larger vision no one could produce on his or herown……"
This skill set encompasses more than what is traditionally meant by the term critical thinking，but the idea here is that one should leave college with better honed cognitive abilities that transcend the content of any particular course of study.
My lesson for you this morning is that because you will interact in the classroom（and outside of it）with fellow students whose experiences have taught them to think in different ways，you will learn to think in new ways.This is a fantastic gift that you provide each other.You will grow as you become aware that your classmates sometimes approach common challenges in ways that are incompatible with yours but actually lead you to revisit，question，and either revise or reconfirm your views.
The opportunities for growth will come not simply because you will learn to appreciate different thinking styles but because you will become increasingly sensitive to individuality，avoiding assumptions about those who seem at first to be like you as much as those who seem very different.A diverse student body does more for undergraduate education than fuel common-room debates in the late evening hours-as enjoyable as it might be to argue with one"s roommates about whether the best dumplings are shumai，empanadas，pierogies，won-ton，vushka，mandu，samosas，boulettes，gnocchi，hushpuppies，or kreplach！Rather，a heterogeneous class changes the nature of everyone"s educational experience by providing a challenging environment that fosters learning and creativity.
I hope I have made clear there can be enormous variability among individuals in thinking styles within any group of people，which is why it isso dangerous to stereotype.And there is nothing fixed or essential or biological about learning to think in different ways.
All of you chose Yale for its reputation as one of the great universities of the world.But you also chose it from all the others because of the reputation Yale has for classroom experiences，recontact with so many different kinds of people.Here at Yale，you will form a community that allows you totrust each other and share your unique attributes，skills，and styles of thinking.
