Believe It or Not

Believe It, Or Not

When my boys were little, they loved Saturday morning cartoons. We watched with them, not just to enjoy family time, but to teach them how to interpret the onslaught of advertising aimed at children. Did that plane really fly all by itself? Is that cereal really “magically delicious” or is it just sugary crunch? Will you really be happy if you buy that, eat that, or go there?

Children need to develop a healthy dose of skepticism when interpreting the information coming at them at lightning speed today. They need to know that not all information is created equal, that some is biased, some is skewed, and some is just plain wrong. Children today must be critical thinkers able to use reasoned judgment when considering information.

B.K. Beyer, child development researcher, writes that children learn to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information — from “observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication.” Is that social-media post fact or fiction? Do my friends really know what they are talking about? Is that news source reliable? In order to navigate successfully through today’s media glut of information, children must be taught to think critically.

In Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children, Roberta Michnick Golenkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek describe the development of critical thinkers. Very young children believe what they see and are told. As they grow, children begin to understand that there are “multiple points of view,” that what I believe may differ from what others believe. This is when the questions start, Why? Why? Why?

Young children still think in absolutes. Something is absolutely true or absolutely false. As children mature, they begin to see how “truths” can be shaded by opinion. They ask, “How do you know?” and “Why do you think that?” They form their own opinions and are raring to debate. They learn to question sources of information, who is giving it, and who is receiving it. They ask questions, then question the answers and the answerer. 

Critical thinkers study information, consider the source, test it for veracity, combine it with what they already know, connect it to new knowledge and act on it. Howard Gardner, famous for his work on Multiple Intelligences, writes, “The ability to knit together information from disparate sources into a coherent whole is vital today.” 

Parents and teachers help children learn to evaluate and judge information when the share jokes, play games, read books, tell stories, share opinions and expose them to new ideas and new places — and when they listen to their children’s opinions, jokes, stories and ask them questions. Know what your children are seeing and hearing. Encourage children to look for proof before believing, to ask the who, what, when, where, how, and why of information. Do it yourself. Show your children how you critically evaluate ideas and opinions before accepting them. Doubt is a great tool for learning.

Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Teach your children to entertain ideas, to consider information critically, and to choose carefully before believing or acting.  

(This is the fifth in a series of articles inspired by Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D. and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D. I encourage you to read it.)