Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
One thing I enjoy about being a father is having conversations with my daughters. I’m not talking about the typical “How was your day?” type of conversation. I try to be aware of what’s going on in their lives whether it is a hobby, music they like, TV shows they are currently following, or comments they make about their day in general. This has allowed me to build a bond with my daughters where they feel comfortable talking to me about things they might otherwise be hesitant about… not to mention I have learned more about anime TV shows and characters than I ever considered.
An aspect of educational development I don’t believe gets enough focus is critical thinking. As my daughters have progressed through the public school system I have noticed many of their writing assignments have basically consisted of looking up and regurgitating information and historical facts. I haven’t seen much indication that their assignments require students to formulate an opinion regarding the topic and to support their reasoning for their opinion. This is important because otherwise children are at risk of growing up with a tendency to make decisions influenced by peer-pressure and public opinion and not through independent evaluation (logic and reason).
How many times have we heard someone make a comment about something and include “I read about it online…”, “I saw on the news last night…”, or “So-and-so said…”. Do any of those referencing statements validate the comment? Unfortunately today news stations are openly bias and the internet has its own information credibility issues. Take this blog for instance… I heard the author uses a Ouija board to determine content topics. Probably one of the most non-bias forms of information is the weather forecast but unfortunately many of those are only 50% accurate.
When I have conversations with my daughters, regardless of the topic, I often engage in such a way that requires them to provide thoughtful responses… such as asking, “What do you think you would do in that situation?”, “How does that make you feel?”, “Why do you think they did/said that?”, “What do you think an appropriate solution might be?”, etc… and often their responses are met with, “And why do you think/feel/believe that?” I don’t interact with them in this way to try and persuade them to change their position or agree with me. Just the opposite; my hope is for them to make sound decisions by evaluating information, applying their own morals, and believing in themselves… but to also be humble enough to recognize when alternate positions/points of view should be accepted. Many times I may agree with their point of view and rationale but will play Devil’s advocate in order to challenge them to self-examine their position from alternate points of view. Sometimes saying something as simple as “Are you sure?” is enough to get someone to question themselves even when they are 100% accurate/correct.
We should teach our children the mechanics of how to think, to consider multiple sources of information, to evaluate that information, to develop their decision making process and formulate their own opinions… and to have the courage and self-confidence to believe in their decisions.