Umm...critical thinking (chronic, institutionalized fault finding) was the pre-cursor to political correctness. Children know how to think, they need information to think with. Anyone who has ever had a close relationship with a 4-yr-old has been outsmarted by that child.
The purpose of education is to pass on to each generation a distillation of the knowledge acquired through 10,000 years of civilization. It’s purpose is to permit them to stand on the shoulders of giants and reach greater heights.
Both critical thinking and political correctness are vaccinations against knowledge.
critical thinking is not “criticizing” - it’s a thought process
phase I - gather information (which is the same as acquiring knowledge, as you recommend)
The US education system, as a whole, has not taught classical liberal (read that as Greek, not progressive) critical thinking at any level for decades.