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Parenting Strategy 11:

Teach Your Child to Think Clearly and Solve Problems

BY ARLENE F. HARDER, MA, MFT

The need to teach the next generation how to think clearly in a search for solutions to complex issues has perhaps never been more important than it is today. As Richard Simon, Ph.D., editor of Psychotherapy Newsletter, said, "the world is not burdened by an overabundance of wisdom." But it may be that your child—with your support as a logic coach—is the one who helps us find a way out of the mess we're in.

Unfortunately, there are pitfalls lying in the path of clear and accurate reasoning, which include these common critical thinking errors:

We interpret information to fit our biases and assumptions because our ego has a stake in being right.

We think we know more than we do and can hold strongly held opinions without any facts or knowledge to support them.

We accept most statistics without question (unless they support the position of an opponent).

We tend to accept the logic of conclusions offered by authorities and experts.

We don't read the small print.

How do you become a logic coach for your child? Here are three ways:

Make Your Child More Important Than TV

As Lydia Bellino, author of Raising Lifelong Learners, notes, "it is through talk that children learn to"understand logical sequences, recognize causes, anticipate consequences, explore options, and consider motives." Yet families in this country spend 6 hours a week shopping and 30 hours a week watching television, compared with average daily one-to-one conversation with school-age children of 9.5 minutes for at-home mothers, 10.7 for working mothers, and less for fathers.

Challenge Your Own Assumptions

It is impossible not to share your perspective on life with your child. What you probably fail to tell them is why you believe what you do. However, if you share with her how difficult it is to evaluate conflicting points of view and if you show her that arriving at conclusions takes some effort, she will discover that there are almost always several legitimate points of view. She will realize that life is not black and white, no matter how much we would like it to be otherwise.

I call this way of teaching clear reasoning the "why, what, where, when, who, and how" approach.

Make certain your child learns the basics of government and other institutions

According to a new million-dollar survey by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, almost a third of high school students, upon hearing the actual text of the 1st Amendment, thinks it goes "too far." In yet another survey, six out of 10 Americans failed to name all three branches of government and fewer than one in 10 could name all four rights guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.

You will be a first-rate logic coach if you make certain your child (and you) are familiar with how our government was founded and what makes it run.

© Copyright 2005, Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT

Cartoons and Quotations Worth Considering

A cartoon shows two tough-looking tattooed motorcyclists on fully-loaded bikes pulled up in front of a bar. The sign in the window states, "The Knee-Jerk Saloon — Every nite is politics and religion nite!"

The caption reads: "No way Dude. This place looks way too scary. . ."

—By Wiley Miller in "Non Sequitur"

In this cartoon a woman eating pretzels and a man with a drink in his hand are sitting on the sofa and passively watching television. An announcement comes off of the TV set.

The caption reads: "WARNING: The following program contains facts that will challenge the self-centered fantasies and bigotries you now hold. For your comfort, AMERICAN IDOL is playing on another channel."

—By Don Pirarro in "Bizarro"

I . . . don't know quite when I began to pay attention to all the misinformation, disinformation, and flagrant abuse of the general public's lack of education in logic and elementary mathematical skills, but I do know that I found it everywhere. I didn't just find a misleading statistic or pronouncement here and there, now and then. I found it (and still do) every day, in every way, throughout the most respected information sources in the country, but most especially from—no surprise—our government. This phenomenon isn't the exception. It's the rule.

—Marilyn Vos Savant in The Power of Logical Thinking: Easy Lessons in the Art of Reasoning . . . and Hard Facts About its Absence in Our Lives