This is my first post directly addressing critical thinking skills. As a very young child, you know very little. Instinct alone tells you when you're uncomfortable (whether hungry, hurting, wet, cold); this isn't really synonymous with knowing anything. You must rely on your "elders" (even if that only means your older siblings) to keep you safe, warm, fed, clothed, protected.
Relatively quickly, you grow and become mobile, curious, inventive, observant; children as young as 15 months understand gravity's effect on a dropped object, and are confused if it doesn't hit the ground. As they learn to crawl, before they even learn to walk, they instinctively will stop at the top of the stairs. All parents have experienced that heart-stopping moment when the crawling "baby" is headed full-throttle towards the down stairway and rush to "save" them. If you didn't reach them "in time", they have almost always plunked themselves on their butt at the top. From the bottom of the stairway is another matter; most will willingly climb those same stairs given a chance. The urge to learn and explore is innate in our species. Encourage that for your child.
As the child grows, and her world grows, her knowledge expands through experience, observation, and formal lessons. Questions show she is thinking. She is trying to come to terms with what she "knows" when it contradicts something she observes or has been told. Or she is evaluating some new bit of information -- this is how most children decide the tooth-fairy is a myth. The delusion of Santa, the Easter Bunny soon follow. It was fun while it lasted, but it's not real.
Don't discourage questions from your children. That's how they learn; that's how they develop the logical, critical thinking skills they need to determine truth, reality even. Children who are force-fed dogma only to recite it back have learned nothing for themselves; only that this behavior is applauded by some adults.
You want your children to grow into thinking adults. The real world needs people who can think rationally. The questioners may not be popular with the "in" crowd, but they will do more to create the best possible future for all life on this planet than all the "group-think" people combined.
BTW, this meme depicts several events that I actually experienced as a child at Sunday School. We were at a table, not the floor, but exact same concept.
Relatively quickly, you grow and become mobile, curious, inventive, observant; children as young as 15 months understand gravity's effect on a dropped object, and are confused if it doesn't hit the ground. As they learn to crawl, before they even learn to walk, they instinctively will stop at the top of the stairs. All parents have experienced that heart-stopping moment when the crawling "baby" is headed full-throttle towards the down stairway and rush to "save" them. If you didn't reach them "in time", they have almost always plunked themselves on their butt at the top. From the bottom of the stairway is another matter; most will willingly climb those same stairs given a chance. The urge to learn and explore is innate in our species. Encourage that for your child.
As the child grows, and her world grows, her knowledge expands through experience, observation, and formal lessons. Questions show she is thinking. She is trying to come to terms with what she "knows" when it contradicts something she observes or has been told. Or she is evaluating some new bit of information -- this is how most children decide the tooth-fairy is a myth. The delusion of Santa, the Easter Bunny soon follow. It was fun while it lasted, but it's not real.
Don't discourage questions from your children. That's how they learn; that's how they develop the logical, critical thinking skills they need to determine truth, reality even. Children who are force-fed dogma only to recite it back have learned nothing for themselves; only that this behavior is applauded by some adults.
You want your children to grow into thinking adults. The real world needs people who can think rationally. The questioners may not be popular with the "in" crowd, but they will do more to create the best possible future for all life on this planet than all the "group-think" people combined.
BTW, this meme depicts several events that I actually experienced as a child at Sunday School. We were at a table, not the floor, but exact same concept.
With so vast amount of knowledge available to our children at such a young age it has become more important than every for us to provide guidance for our children to help them develop understanding.
ReplyDeleteIf our children do not develop understanding of the knowledge they gain, then, as they gain more knowledge they will become destructive towards themselves and others.
Our children have to be able to understand the difference between right and wrong to know how to use the knowledge they have in a constructive fashion as opposed to a destructive fashion.
If we look around us we can plainly see the destruction that is taking place already due to the shortage of understanding for the knowledge our children are gaining.
If we do not do our part for our children, then the lives of our children will be doomed by the misuse of knowledge.
May peace be with you.
Thank you for reading & taking time to reply, Larry. I do not mean to say we should not teach our children, guide them in their learning. I mean we must not dampen their natural curiosity, their natural urge to explore, question, and know. We don't want future lemmings; we want future thinkers and doers.
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