Thinking Critically & Making Rational Decisions – An art that should be nurtured from Childhood!
We all know critical/rational thinking helps us become smarter, wiser and intellectual. This is more like an art. We use this in our everyday life, and in almost every circumstance.
The quality of our thinking, and how critically we evaluate the things and thoughts, and how quickly we make better decisions, help us get ahead in life a lot quicker and makes us lead a much harmonious life. Also it helps us to avoid any deceits or discontentment.
Still we see many lag behind this critical skill, even adults, hence we make wrong choices in our lives which we regret later. No one can predict the future, but identifying and practicing to rationalize right cause-effects, can help us evaluate our choices and decisions better. That’s the controllable thing in our hands after all.
How to help children nurture this key art at home!
Build a culture – It all starts from the culture. More we create a culture where the child is asked to ask questions, not follow blindly whatever is being told to them, apply their reasoning abilities, better their critical thinking orientation gets nurtured. Motivate critical thinking at home. It will require patience to answer their every doubt, but that’s the process unfortunately, and directing them to right cause-effect will be alot beneficial for them only in their coming lives
Demotivate Biases, rigid beliefs and Prejudices – Biases are the enemies of critical thinking. They don’t let us get closer to the truth, but keep us in some false comfort zone. Need to make children aware of all these terms from an early childhood. Some exercise, like quoting some scenarios or examples, and asking if its a bias/preconceived notion or a truth will help children get identify these patterns and not let it harm them
Do not feed them any fallacy – Sometimes we do tell them fallacies or beliefs which we ourselves aren’t sure about. It’s because someone told that very belief to us in our childhood which is being passed on to children. Tell children what’s a lie and what’s still under evaluation. Tell them the truth. Also, never use illusions to make them behave in a certain manner, as it orients them towards fallacious thinking. Use real world illustrations
Expose them to ‘Gray thinking, and not black or white thinking’ – This is a boon for children, if this exposure is given well before. We see a lot of adults even are prone to white or black thinking, and are just fanatics. Reality is different from perceptions. So, we need to promote a culture of Gray thinking and demotivate Black or white thinking right from childhood. Scenario based discussions will help children understand this well. Also, whenever parents apply gray thinking in their day to day life, sharing such instances with children will also help them
Overthinking is dangerous – Many times we overthink. May be as our nature, or during the process of critical thinking. While thinking critically, weighing pros and cons and factoring all things may take time and that’s not meant by overthinking here. That is a good thing to do. But
Overthinking based on our anxieties, apprehensions & state of confusion is bad. Children should be asked to identify what’s making them overthink. Is there any fear, or confusion, or conflicting interests or any other thing. Ask them to take their decision which they think is best suitable for them quickly and pursue that decision, to learn from the outcome. Unfortunately there isn’t any timeframe to make decisions, as that depends on instance to instance, but do promote kids to take decisions and not overthink, as this pattern can be damaging to their prospects in future
Avoid judgements in our statements – Demotivate making judgements. This, children learn from us, when we make judgements about others in our statements. So, we have to be cautious while we speak in front of children. Making judgements is easy. Those can be wrong as well. So, we need to think holistically and not declare our judgements. Also, need to educate children how making judgements so quickly is bad for them only that it does not allow them to think beyond a point
Nourish ‘We don’t know everything’ attitude – Children are inquisitive. And in excitement they like to educate others on what they know. It’s good from an enthusiasm point of view. But at the same time, we need to make them aware that there is still a lot to know and learn from others. So, be humble and listen well, to increase your own knowledge. Because, when we are humble and are open to new learnings, then only we can process new information which can aid our critical thinking. Ask ‘What -if’ questions, and promote culture of asking doubts at home
Reward rational decisions over emotional ones – Demonstrate this in front of kids. Use words ‘Rational’ and ‘emotional’ while we are making a decision in front of them and tell how they are weighing rationality over emotionality. Biggest hindrance to rational decision making is emotional gullibility, and we need to address the elephant in the house early on!
Tell them they have 2 minds! – Lazy mind (which does not want to think) and Rational mind (which loves to think). Activate the rational mind. Operate from a rational mind. It’s the lazy mind which wants to make judgments quickly, think in black and white, finds quick gratification and comfort, since it does not want to think. Thinking for the lazy mind is an effort which it does not want to make. So, promote operating from a rational mind.
Build problem solving attitude – Problem solving is more of an attitude than a skill. It’s the next step of critical thinking. There are problems everywhere we encounter. Some genuine ones, some we create. Build a narrative that the child needs to be a ‘Problem solver’ than a ‘Problem pin-pointer’
Practice Critical thinking and Decision making framework at home – Absorb, contemplate, evaluate and reflect. Children should be motivated to follow this 4 step principle. They can start by writing down the factors in each step and can take their time. Gradually their habit will become stronger and no longer they would need to use pen and paper as their mind will be attuned to such way to thinking
Rational thinking is our biggest asset. Without this, we are vulnerable and prone to many deep falls. We need to curate and talk about critical thinking in detail with our children for their own good growth and development!
