Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxr.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihuxr!lew 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