Teaching Reason (to Children)

[thesummerqueen]

Yeah, museums are huge. We were lucky, raised outside of DC as we were, and we were CONSTANTLY going to science-type museums. And history.

While my parents didn't actively teach critical thinking or skepticism, my father as also a big joker and I learned quickly not to trust people's claims simply because he'd always make a silly claim and see how long he could joke with us about it. He'd put forth a theory in utter seriousness and I wouldn't believe him until I had asked mom, or several other people, to see if I could ferret out the truth. This, of course, was before the ubiquitous use of cell phones and ipads so I couldn't just "Google it!". It was the second best thing, in my eyes.

What you then have to do is talk to your kids about who is a good "authority" and why.

I think I was lucky being raised by a lawyer who had a minor in zoology, as he was careful to tell me that all arguments have "another side" but that even if people passionately argue that "other side," it doesn't mean it's necessarily true, which is where evidence comes in. The zoology part means he fed me as much biology-learnin' as he could.