Is there such a thing as "too young" when it comes to critical thinking?

[Alceste]

On another thread, it was suggested that 8 or 9 is 'too young' for children to learn critical thinking skills. Thoughts?

[atotalstranger]

Originally Posted by Alceste

On another thread, it was suggested that 8 or 9 is 'too young' for children to learn critical thinking skills. Thoughts?

It depends on the child. I was already a skeptic at that age and had developed basic critical thinking skills. I have a niece that age who can also clearly think in a critical fashion. For some kids, due to intellectual development and/or personality, 8 or 9 may be too young to develop critical thinking skills (of course, this applies to some people no matter their age). Not that it shouldn't be attempted - education shouldn't be based on the lowest common denominator.

[Odion]

Originally Posted by Alceste

On another thread, it was suggested that 8 or 9 is 'too young' for children to learn critical thinking skills. Thoughts?

What would one consider as critical thinking skills? Vague terminology.
Depends on the child, but I'd say for many, it is probably too young.

[stephenw]

I don't think critical thinking as Dawkins has it is compatible with childhood as I know it.
Childhood is fairies, Santa, the Banshee, the Easter Bunny, dead pets going to heaven, imagination and magic.

[Alceste]

Originally Posted by stephenw

I don't think critical thinking as Dawkins has it is compatible with childhood as I know it.
Childhood is fairies, Santa, the Banshee, the Easter Bunny, dead pets going to heaven, imagination and magic.

Do you think that childhood might be different for children of parents with a non-supernatural world view? I never believed in Santa. In fact, my parents told me there was no such thing as Santa when I was too young to remember. (They believed in God at the time and reasoned they couldn't lie to me about one invisible man and expect me to trust them about the other.) I was never encouraged to "believe in" things that don't exist, except for God, and even in that case there was no pressure.

I think people who grew up with parents with a supernatural world view might find that mean or deprived or something, but from my perspective lying to children to just see their smiling faces is mean, and selfish too.

[Odion]

Originally Posted by Alceste

but from my perspective lying to children to just see their smiling faces is mean, and selfish too.

I am so with you here!
When people find out I won't let my kids hold the belief in Santa or the Easter bunny or anything, they're like "WHAT? That's cruel!" , but in my mind it's more cruel to lie to them - I wonder how many kids are actually heartbroken when they are told Santa doesn't exist.

[Alceste]

Originally Posted by Odion

What would one consider as critical thinking skills? Vague terminology.
Depends on the child, but I'd say for many, it is probably too young.

To me, "critical thinking", means trying to figure things out using reason and empirical evidence.

"Magical thinking", the supernatural alternative, is imaginative guessing, and believing one's guess is an actual, factual truth.

I consider the shaking of wrapped presents to be critical thinking, and belief in fairies to be magical thinking. Children seem to intuitively know - better than adults - which type is most effective in any given situation. When they're playing a game of "crocodiles in the gutter", it does nobody any good to say "There aren't REALLY and crocodiles in the gutter". However, during an eater egg hunt, you won't find kids saying the gutter crocodiles ran off with all the candy so there's no point looking.

[gnomon]

Originally Posted by Alceste

On another thread, it was suggested that 8 or 9 is 'too young' for children to learn critical thinking skills. Thoughts?

The moment we start teaching children to think is when you can start teaching them to think critically.

Those who complain about the children being too young are too busy "speaking down" to them as Tolkien once said regarding children's literature because our society feels that the human minds is incapable of such learning. He wrote a great essay on fairy stories and how some of his contemporaries and immediate ancestors in the English speaking world dumbed down literature for children and neutered the mythology and folktales. One of the reasons he despised Disney and his companies take on classic fairy tales.

Then we wonder why our teens, in general, exhibit such reckless behavior but that same behavior is not witnessed in less developed nations where children have to learn more about their immediate environment and survival then Western children do.

I fail to see how being honest and critical with our children in any way inhibits their education. What is lacking in a critical education? Teaching them mythologies with the force of authority.

Now there's a value.

[Alceste]

Originally Posted by Odion

I am so with you here!
When people find out I won't let my kids hold the belief in Santa or the Easter bunny or anything, they're like "WHAT? That's cruel!" , but in my mind it's more cruel to lie to them - I wonder how many kids are actually heartbroken when they are told Santa doesn't exist.

Yeah, that's a big part of it. Another part is the whole context of instilling worthwhile values such as integrity and honesty in children. If you say "Don't lie" to a child, then tell him Santa's coming down the chimney so we better put out cookies, and the child catches you out, what has he learned?

Heh, speaking of which, here's a story about my dad - he figured out there was no Santa when he was 4. He couldn't see how one guy could fly around the whole earth in one night, and he also recalled that the oranges in his stocking the previous year were remarkably similar to the oranges in the cupboard. So, one Christmas eve he marked all the oranges in the cupboard with a black pen. The next morning, when he found the oranges in his stocking were marked, it confirmed what he suspected: Santa was his parents, and his parents were liars.

[Odion]

Originally Posted by Alceste

To me, "critical thinking", means trying to figure things out using reason and empirical evidence.

"Magical thinking", the supernatural alternative, is imaginative guessing, and believing one's guess is an actual, factual truth.

I consider the shaking of wrapped presents to be critical thinking, and belief in fairies to be magical thinking. Children seem to intuitively know - better than adults - which type is most effective in any given situation. When they're playing a game of "crocodiles in the gutter", it does nobody any good to say "There aren't REALLY and crocodiles in the gutter". However, during an eater egg hunt, you won't find kids saying the gutter crocodiles ran off with all the candy so there's no point looking.

Ahh! In that case, I don't think too young is really an issue, and many kids are sharper in that regards than we'd like to take them for. I thought you may have also philosophy, for example Plato or other classical works! Words are vague.