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From: lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: teaching HOW to think
Message-ID: <1240@ihuxr.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 2-Dec-84 23:12:41 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxr.1240
Posted: Sun Dec  2 23:12:41 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Dec-84 07:42:22 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 21

Warren Montgomery posted an article to net.origins (and net.politics)
commenting that creationism was by no means the only controversial topic
liable to one-sided treatment in the schools. He closed with the remark:

	My advice to parents is to focus on teaching people HOW to
	think, not WHAT to think.

This may be a quibble, but I have trouble with the idea of "teaching how
to think". I feel it's more a matter of encouraging kids (to narrow the focus
slightly) to think on their own, and letting them discover their own technique.

The following incident gave me some evidence that I was doing this
successfully with my own kids (WARNING: CUTE STORY FOLLOWS)

When my son Max was four, he asked me to find his pacifier at bedtime.
(No pacifier flames please - he gave it up on his own in due time)
I was looking around the bed for it, and I asked Max, "Did it fall
down along the wall?"  I could recognize my own advice coming back at
me when he responded in a thoughtful tone, "Well ... what do you think?"

		Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihuxr!lew