I believe that teaching your children how to think is infinitely more important that teaching your children exactly what to think.

Practically, this should make sense.

For eventually, our children will be on their own. They will stand on their own feet.

They will have to make their own decisions. And they will have to use their own critical thinking to do so.

What a disservice we do without instilling a rational basis of cause and effect in our young ones, coupled with a curiosity to scratch beyond the surface of a given topic.

I’ll give you a good example here.

See, the problem of pain comes up occasionally in my Sunday School class.

After a little discussion, there will be a bit of hand-ringing and someone will invariable say: “Sometimes good things just happen to bad people.”

Others will nod along knowingly. And then the discussion moves on.

In ANY topic they encounter, I do not want my children to stop with this kind of resignation.

I mean, do you have any idea how long philosophers and theologians have wrestled with – and written about – the problem of evil throughout the centuries?

People have dedicated their intellectual lives to this topic!

Go read five books on something before you are willing to write off an answers as unknowable, ok?

Clearly: This is my favorite type of critical thinking.

And if you want more on on how to think, don’t miss, How To Think, By: Alan Jacobs.

“Yes . . .” Jones looked up and nodded as if confirming what he was saying to himself. “What a person thinks is absolutely and always determined by how a person thinks. This is why, as parents, you must be on guard against those who would teach your children what to think and why you must be on the front lines of teaching your children how to think.”

-Andy Andrews, The Noticer Returns