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Parenting19 min read
Raising Critical Thinkers
by Julie Bogart
A Parent's Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age
Published: February 7, 2024
4.3 (104 ratings)
Book Summary
This is a comprehensive summary of “Raising Critical Thinkers” by Julie Bogart. The book explores a parent's guide to growing wise kids in the digital age.
what’s in it for me? raise kids who think for themselves.#
Introduction
julie bogart raising critical thinkers
a parent's guide to growing wise kids in the digital age
in an era of unprecedented access to information, fact and fiction can look awfully alike.
more than ever, children need to learn whom to trust, what to believe, and when to question what they hear.
as a parent, you might find the task of teaching and developing these skills incredibly daunting, but fear not.
this chapter to julie bogart's raising critical thinkers has the answers you're looking for.
weaving personal stories with expert advice, you'll be presented with activities, frameworks, and habits to help young people navigate the complexity of the world with an open heart and a strong mind.
with care and courage, you'll be able to begin shepherding your children to think independently, critically, and kindly.
so, if you're ready to tackle thoughtful parenting head-on, let's get started.
questioning yourself do you ever wish your children were more thoughtful in their judgments?
questioning yourself#
of course!
what parent wouldn't?
but children's good judgment should go deeper than how they choose to spend their saturday nights.
today's complex world is filled with misleading claims, half-truths, biased opinions, and outright lies.
even for adults, it has become hard to discern fact from fiction.
that's why cultivating critical thinking skills in our kids is more important than ever.
we need to teach them good judgment to help them decide where to get their information, whom to listen to, and what to believe.
but where to start?
well, first, rethink the notion that schools automatically build good thinkers.
both public and private schools can be too focused on doing things by the book.
they often reward conformity over curiosity and value the memorization of facts over genuine insight.
as famous feminist writer and educator bell hooks put it, real education should equip young people to evaluate claims carefully.
this begins with questioning our own beliefs.
so, before even thinking about your kid, take an academic selfie of your own.
what are the experiences, assumptions, and loyalties that color your beliefs?
how do they influence how you react to new information or ideas?
for instance, reading an argument against one's treasured beliefs might trigger physical anxiety or mental avoidance.
but critical thinkers are able to press past their initial fight-or-flight responses to weigh the new argument carefully.
before we can cultivate that skill in our kids, we need to cultivate it in ourselves.
in the end, becoming self-aware is a key prerequisite to evaluating others.
questioning the speaker#
don't worry.
you're not the only one who makes judgments based on your personal experiences, backgrounds, and beliefs without realizing it.
everyone does.
that's why it's so important to teach our kids to recognize who's making a point, why they're making it, and where they're coming from.
a great exercise to playfully cultivate self and speaker awareness in your children is called says who.
here's how you do it.
read them an age-appropriate story, and then ask questions to get them to think about the storyteller's perspective and trustworthiness.
you can ask such things as, who's telling the story?
and, do you trust the storyteller to tell the truth?
the goal is to prompt the kids to realize that stories are always told from a particular vantage point and shaped by the storyteller's biases.
a great book for younger children is the true story of the three little pigs by john szczeska, which retells the classic fairy tale from the perspective of the wolf.
although the wolf tries to convince the readers that he's an innocent neighbor, even young readers get a sense that he might be presenting a distorted version of events.
for older children and teens, adapt the exercise to make it more interesting.
pick a well-known story from literature, popular movies, or tv shows to discuss.
ask your kids to identify who the narrator is and to evaluate whether that narrator is trustworthy.
ask them to retell portions of the story from another character's perspective and analyze how details change based on the narrator's background and knowledge.
along the way, encourage them to explore how cultural factors like race, class, and gender can shape characters' perspectives in storytelling.
and check in on how different versions make them feel about events and characters.
do their empathy and judgment shift?
the says who exercise is a great way to help your kids understand how our backgrounds shape our interpretations.
the goal is to invite them to take in all kinds of different perspectives until comparing alternate viewpoints feels natural.
this will not only teach them to evaluate evidence, but also cultivate their empathy for people from different walks of life.
sifting fact from fiction do you ever get frustrated when loved ones seem unable to accept facts that contradict their opinions?
sifting fact from fiction#
or when opposing sides can't agree because they interpret the same facts differently?
our brains often filter information through hidden biases, even when we aim to think critically.
the good news is that teaching your children about common perceptual pitfalls can help them recognize and avoid those mistakes early on.
start by explaining the differences among facts, interpretations, evidence, perspectives, and beliefs.
facts are irreducible pieces of information that can be repeatedly verified, such as dates, data, events, or objects.
on their own, facts don't imply meaning.
for example, it's a fact that the u.s. dropped an atomic bomb on hiroshima, japan, on august 6, 1946.
interpretations explain the significance of facts.
standard textbooks often implicitly teach kids to accept all embedded perspectives as equally factual.
consider a textbook that says, dropping the atomic bomb on hiroshima in 1945 was a necessary act of war by the united states, versus one that says, dropping the atomic bomb on hiroshima in 1945 was an unjustified act of war by the united states.
both get the main fact right, but color it with completely different interpretations.
teach your kids to spot such implicit interpretations.
evidence refers to pieces of information that support certain interpretations.
strong evidence draws from credible research sources or hard data.
weak evidence stems from personal experience or from stereotypes, prejudice, and bias.
perspectives contextualize evidence in light of our current knowledge and position.
with the says who exercise, you already introduced your kids to the importance of recognizing our own and other people's vantage point.
beliefs mix facts, morals, perspectives, and evidence into what we think is true or right.
when beliefs conflict with evidence, beliefs usually prevail.
often, the only way to dislodge long-held beliefs is to have formative new experiences.
facts, interpretations, evidence, perspectives, and beliefs— those are the different pieces that make up the stories we tell about reality.
often they get woven together inconspicuously, blurring the line between hard fact and wishful thinking.
arming your kids with the mental framework to distinguish these moving pieces from each other is a crucial part of critical thinking.
gaming your way to empathy#
do you ever wonder if there's more to education than just getting through material?
nobel prize winner toni morrison once posed an insightful question, what can i do where i am?
she suggests considering the question from all angles, placing emphasis on different words.
what can i do where i am?
what can i do where i am?
what can i do where i am?
and so on.
this simple question challenges us to consider how our talents and positions can serve others.
similarly, raising critical thinkers means deliberately considering how education can shape who a child is and how they can positively affect others.
rather than just transmitting information, true learning equips students to apply insights meaningfully.
encourage your children to be passionate about their interests and care for their community.
the goal is to produce engaged, ethical citizens who act with informed compassion.
games are a great tool for teaching kids many of the skills they need to become engaged, critical, and compassionate human beings.
good games intrinsically motivate kids to think critically and overcome obstacles.
their rules provide reassuring structure.
their changing dynamics require innovation.
their social aspects teach kids to navigate conflict and cooperation.
and their mechanics build useful skills like strategizing, counting, and spatial reasoning.
and yes, this also goes for video games.
new studies have dismissed some of the parental fears about video games, even the violent ones.
while excessive gaming bears physical, social, and cognitive risks, 7 to 10 hours of gaming per week has been shown to have positive effects on kids' creativity, emotional regulation, and concentration.
so while you don't want your kids' video gaming habit to go unchecked, you may want to reconsider your overall stance on it.
because when kids care about something, like beating their high score or following the engaging storyline of their favorite game, they're actually much more willing to learn.
when kids appreciate the value of a subject, they're more motivated to think critically about it.
and caring enough to understand an issue deeply leads to more informed beliefs.
ultimately, critical thinking starts with caring.
caring enough to improve how we think and what we believe.
as toni morrison's question suggests, the purpose of learning is to gain wisdom to serve others.
reading, experiencing, and encountering#
it's easy for us parents to fall into the trap of being backseat drivers when it comes to our kids' learning.
we shuttle them from activity to activity, diligently quiz them on facts from textbooks, and breathlessly track their grades and test scores.
but real learning doesn't happen by watching from the sidelines.
to raise critical thinkers, we need to get in the game ourselves.
true education is not about passively consuming information.
it's about actively reading, experiencing, and encountering ideas, people, and skills.
this means moving beyond books to provide your kids with hands-on learning opportunities wherever possible.
so, how can you apply this concept at home?
first, provide them with plenty of real-world experiences.
don't just read them some facts about bears.
take them to the zoo to see real bears.
direct experiences stick with us in a way that mere facts on a page rarely do.
and whenever you can, resist the urge to step in and solve problems for your kids.
prompt your children to figure things out themselves, even if it's frustrating at times.
they want to tie their own shoes?
let them, even if it takes 20 minutes.
expose them to new hobbies that build patience, attention to detail, and other critical skills.
for instance, getting out into nature to identify plants and animals is a great way to flex their powers of observation.
diverse experiences wire kids' brains to navigate new situations adeptly.
be sure to make time for deep reading where kids can immerse themselves in books without distraction.
studies show that people focus best after reading for 20 minutes straight.
set aside device-free family reading time to instill this valuable mental habit.
another fun exercise is to break the rules, so to speak, with your kids.
take an activity you've done before and come up with ways to flip the script.
for instance, read only the last page of a book and have your kids guess at the plot.
rewrite the script of a familiar movie or book by flipping the hero and villain roles.
with older kids, explore historical what-ifs.
what if women had written the constitution?
what if the allies had lost world war ii?
the goal is to deliberately provoke new vantage points through a typical remixing of familiar narratives, equations, and social conventions.
disrupting those systems fosters critical thinking by exposing their constructed nature.
real learning happens when kids actively apply skills and grapple with experiences themselves.
our kids deserve better than an education conducted from the sidelines.
let's get them in the game!
considering opposing views#
think about the last time someone presented an idea that threatened your worldview.
did your body tense up?
heart race?
fists clench?
our physical reactions show how wedded we are to our perspectives.
we get defensive and cling to our convictions, making it hard to think critically about opposing views.
but with enough self-awareness, we can get past knee-jerk reactions to discover new insights.
the first step is to become aware of these sensations, thoughts, and feelings as they surface.
teach your kids to get curious, not combative, when a challenging viewpoint arises.
have them ask questions such as, how is the issue affecting the person speaking?
what experiences have shaped their outlook?
we don't need to imagine being other persons.
we just need to acknowledge their right to see things differently.
one low-stakes exercise here is to read movie reviews with your kids.
have them pick a favorite movie and make a list of what they love about it.
then, let them read positive reviews that align with their perspective.
next, let them read negative reviews from critics who interpret the same movie completely differently.
have your kids note their emotional reactions and defensiveness when reading the negative reviews.
what feelings come up?
what immediate rebuttals pop into their minds?
are they able to understand the perspective of the critic?
this exercise shows how easily we dismiss dissenting perspectives, especially those that destabilize our preferred interpretations.
developing the capacity to reflect on our own reactions and inquire into dissenting viewpoints with curiosity, rather than rejection, is central to critical thinking.
by nurturing empathy, openness, and insight, you equip your kids to evolve perspectives, bridge divides, and elevate discourse.
they will become the critical thinkers our complex world needs.
final summary#
Conclusion
in this chapter to raising critical thinkers by julie bogart, you've learned how to nurture critical thinking skills in your kids.
before judging other people's views, teach your kids to evaluate their own biases.
question assumptions, identify perspectives, and sift facts from interpretation.
fun activities like the says who exercise help kids analyze the trustworthiness of the storyteller.
teach them to distinguish key concepts like facts, evidence, and beliefs.
frame issues to invite curiosity over combativeness.
let kids grapple with experiences directly instead of solving problems for them.
have them monitor their physical and mental reactions to certain ideas without judgment.
by emphasizing care, compassion, and critical thinking, you'll help your kids evolve stances with humility.
you'll help them develop into self-aware, ethical citizens who reform discourse through compassionate critical thought.
okay, that's it for this chapter.
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