In May, Pope Leo spoke about the importance of critical thinking in the present digital age: “we must rediscover, emphasize and cultivate our duty to train others in critical thinking, countering temptations to the contrary, which can also be found in ecclesial circles.” He emphasized that our present global situation makes such training even more critical since authentic dialogue is often replaced with “shouting,” “fake news,” and the “irrational arguments proposed by a few loud voices.” Elsewhere in his talk, he connected the ability to think logically and critically to the formation and freedom of conscience. He cautioned that we need to collectively slow down and engage in “deeper reflection and study.”

As parents, this admonition to impart critical thinking skills hits close to home. We see our children growing up in a world where the boundaries of truth are blurred and logic is often dismissed or scorned. We know that Proverbs 14:15 tells us that “the simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.” Who among us does not want prudent children? How do we help your families to navigate this current climate that is so toxic to thought processes?

For children to become critical thinkers, they must first learn to contemplate their thinking. The long and somewhat intimidating term for this is metacognition. Broken down, the word means the ability to go beyond the acts of thinking, learning, and understanding so that we understand those very acts themselves. Once children start to think about their own thinking, they can begin to evaluate their thoughts and conclusions. They can evaluate the information they take in by thinking about how credible sources are, whether arguments are logical, and if their understanding is accurate and complete.

Since the best way to teach these skills is to embed them in living and playing, the following activities are fun ways to develop your child’s critical thinking skills and teach them to live prudently.

Metacognition

1. Help your children to begin thinking about their own thought processes by using prompting questions in your daily activities. For example, you might ask:

I see you looking very carefully at that rock. What are you thinking about it?

In addition to directing their focus through your questions, you can model metacognition for your child. On a gray day, you might say something like:

I see the clouds coming. I am thinking that it is going to rain and we will have to go inside.

2. Look at baby pictures together and ask your child what they might have been thinking about in their pictures. Once they have pondered their own thoughts, let them guess what you were thinking in each picture. Talk them through what was really going through your mind. Even if their responses descend into bathroom humor (with school age children this is practically inevitable), the lesson will be learned: I am a thinking being whose thoughts about things around me may or may not be shared by others.

Evaluating Thoughts

3. Help your child to understand that thinking something does not make it true by playing “Pause and Rewind.” Think back (rewind) to a time when your child experienced conflict with another child and both children said something to the effect of, “It’s not fair.” Now pause. Ask your child how both children’s perceptions could be accurate if they both felt that the other received preferential treatment? Someone must have been wrong or, more likely, they were both partially wrong. Explain that sometimes our thoughts trick us. Just because we think something does not make it true.
4. Go on a “Trickster Thought” scavenger hunt together. Find examples of incorrect thinking in the world around them. If little Joey thinks he saw a black mamba in his back yard, do some research to show that this is a “Trickster Thought.” Or if Mommy is mad because she thinks Ellen used her phone and did not put it back, point out that the discovery of the phone in the laundry room proves that Mommy had a “Trickster Thought.”

Note: It is important for children to understand that we sometimes think things that are not only untrue, but also dangerous and hurtful. This includes thoughts that are related to    racism, ablism, and other forms of prejudice. Often, these thoughts are born out of negative emotions like fear, jealousy, and selfishness. Having these thoughts does not make us bad people, but it is important that we pay attention when we are having such thoughts so that we can remind ourselves that they are false thoughts that we do not trust or act on.

Be open with your children about the differences that they perceive in others. Let them know that things that are different can seem scary because we are afraid of what we do not know. Tell them that when we are scared, we might think things about people that are not true. What is true is that all people, even if they are quite different from us, were made and are loved by God. They are His children, just like us. Sometimes, it can help to make connections with people your children are already close to: is their best friend whose skin is a different color mean? is their father who has an accent dumb? is the sibling who is disabled weird? was the grandmother who is poor lazy? Show your child that their negative thoughts about someone’s differences would be untrue if applied to the people they are close to.

Evaluating Information

5. Play reporter. One of the first things children need to do when evaluating information is to make sure that they have a full understanding of what is being discussed. Does it tell them everything they need to know or are there important pieces missing? Give your child a pencil and notepad and let them dress up as a reporter. Then ask them to interview you for a news story about something that happened earlier in the day. Teach them to make sure to ask questions that help them to understand who was involved, what happened, when it happened, where it happened, why it happened, and how it happened. Then have them interview someone else using the same questions. Talk about how they have a better understanding of what happened after obtaining information from more than one source.
6. Be a news detective. For older children, read an article about a current event together. Ask them what information the article gave them and what they still need to know to fully understand what was discussed. Help them to fill the gaps in their knowledge with research. Then take a moment to look back on how their thoughts about the situation changed as additional information came to light. For example, read this article from Fox News on the new executive order on flag burning in the US. Examine the quoted social media post suggesting that since people are imprisoned for burning pride flags, they should also be imprisoned for burning American flags. On the surface, this argument makes sense and the poster obtained the story from the BBC which is a trusted news source for many people. It is easy to see why this post would be persuasive to someone reading the Fox News article. But your child is smart and you have taught them that using a bait-and-switch tactic with a different inflammatory issue is a common way to deflect appropriate criticism, so you decide you need to know all the details about the BBC article before coming to any conclusions. Now, look at this source article for the post. One small detail undermines the entire argument of the post: the burned flag was stolen. Burning someone else’s flag, regardless of the type of flag, is a crime and it was from this crime that the charges stemmed. Now that you know that this example was false, spend a little time searching for other examples to support the initial argument that people are being imprisoned for burning pride flags. In my own search, all of the related news stories described criminal charges that stemmed from burning someone else’s flag (sometimes resulting in damage to other property). Talk with your child about how the absence of one word resulted in a gross misrepresentation of fact and became an attempt at manipulation rather than information. Its inclusion in the Fox News piece unjustifiably muddies the original arguments against the executive order. Details matter.
7. Play the telephone game to show how primary sources are usually the most correct and reliable. If your kids are like mine, the messages will inevitably be distorted whether due to difficulties hearing (we play intergenerationally) or deliberate sabotage (my kids). Show your child how a simple piece of information can be distorted for a variety of reasons and motivations as it passes through multiple people. This is why getting information from the people who are closest to an issue is important.
8. For older kids, host a murder mystery night. One of the guests is the murderer but no one knows who it is. Each guest is given partial information. Some of it is correct, some is not, but no one knows how accurate their information is. Nevertheless, they need to all share their “knowledge” and work together according to their character’s roles to solve the mystery. After the game is over, talk with one another about how gossip and misinformation can be spread for a variety of reasons and sometimes by well-meaning people who just want to help. This can do a lot of damage. Brainstorm ways that they can filter what is someone’s opinion, what is hearsay, and what is fact.
9. Enjoy a Friday evening Disney movie night with a focus on the villains. Evaluating how reliable information is requires probing motivations. Disney’s Tangled and Frozen offer fantastic examples of villains who have hidden motives for their dishonesty. These “bad guys” are particularly chilling because they are kind and pleasant on the surface. Only later in the stories do we realize that it is all just a ploy to attain their own selfish goals. The following week, watch Mulan and discuss how her dishonesty stems from her desire to protect her aging father and preserve the family’s honor. Her motivation is good, but it still results in dishonesty and trickery. Help your children to think about what motivates people to share the truth (or not).
10. Have a tasting party. Pick a food item that your child has never tried but has caught your child’s attention through advertisements. In our case, it was Little Bite’s muffins. Now ask your child to imagine how the food tastes based on the advertisement. What emotions do they think they will feel when they eat it? Now, have them try it. Did it live up to their expectations? Alternatively, you could purchase an unadorned yogurt cup and the same flavor of yogurt made by the same company but marketed with superheroes. Have your child close their eyes and guess which container they are eating from. Can they do it? Talk with your child about the motivations companies have to make their products sound and look enticing. Then explain that, often, products do not measure up to how they are marketed. The same is true for ideas. If someone is trying to convince you of something, they are “selling” it to you. What is their motivation for doing so? Is it as good as they are making it sound? What questions could your child ask to find out.
11. Get planting. The Bible tells us that on issues of faith, the ultimate test is what fruits are born out. Does a person, object, or idea bring about goodness, justice, love, truth, and mercy or does it sow division, discord, strife, hatred, injustice, and unforgiveness? Since most of us no longer live in close proximity to agriculture, one way to help children to understand this idea is to fill a pot with soil and plant two plants that have not blossomed: one a real strawberry plant and the other a false or Indian strawberry. Have your child guess which is which using just the leaves. Now wait until the plants produce fruit and ask them again which plant is which. Talk with them about how both plants can look nice on the outside, but only the real strawberry plant gives good fruit. Explain how thoughts are like that. Godly thoughts give good fruit and encourage godliness. Ungodly thoughts, when acted on, cause problems and sin. When they must choose between the two, choose the one with good fruit.

Evaluating Conclusions

12. Be a book fortune teller. Practice taking in information and using it to come to conclusions and make inferences as you read. Before starting a book, ask your child to look at the cover and make educated guesses about how the book will end. Now read the book, pausing intermittently to see if their predictions change based on the information they glean from the book. Make sure that they do not just make random guesses – they should provide you with “evidence” or “clues” from the text that support their predictions. Whether or not your children are able to correctly predict the ending, remind them that if they do not base their conclusions on sound logic and information, they are likely to be wrong.
13. Veg out to a Veggie Tales Tune. If you want a fun way to teach the need to evaluate what leads us to logical conclusions, listen to the Veggie Tales song Monkey. In the song, Larry the Cucumber has been told that if something does not have a tail, it is not a monkey but an ape. By overgeneralizing this bit of knowledge, he draws some hilarious conclusions about which things are monkeys and which things are apes. After listening, talk with your kids about how Larry’s application of his knowledge led to illogical and inaccurate conclusions. Remind them of the importance of evaluating conclusions so that we do not mislead ourselves or others.

A Final Thought

As you help your child to develop their critical thinking skills, enjoy watching them better understand themselves, truth, and reality. Be proud that you are raising the next generation of world leaders who will use these skills to evaluate information and come to informed conclusions. Plato once said, “There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.” Similarly, author Jodi Picoult recently said that democracy rests on critical thinking. So, while these activities may seem silly, know that you are doing your part to shape the future and nurture tomorrow’s thinkers.

Image: “Hrókurinn” (CC BY-ND 2.0) by hugrakka

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Ariane Sroubek

Ariane Sroubek is a writer, school psychologist and mother to two children here on earth. Prior to converting to Catholicism, she completed undergraduate studies in Bible and Theology at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She then went on to obtain her doctorate in School and Child Clinical Psychology. Ariane’s writing is inspired by her faith, daily life experiences and education. She is currently writing a women's fiction novel and a middle-grade mystery series. Her non-fiction book, Raising Sunshine: A Guide to Parenting Through the Aftermath of Infant Death is available on Amazon. More of her work can be found at https://mysustaininggrace.com.