Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 142 posts

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#2

Post by tboyd47 »

Show them by example how to be skeptical without accusing people of lying, and mention often the many reasons why people say things that might not be completely true.

Also, you need to make sure you yourself don't lie to them. A lot of parents still teach their kids to believe in Santa Claus. I know this is one of those cultural sacred cows, but I strongly think this should not be done. Kids need to be able to trust their parents and caregivers to a higher degree than the rest of society.

I've done some formal "activities" with them in homeschooling, like sorting "real" vs. "not real," but even I don't think those are as good as leading by example.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#5

Post by gallamine »

A simple procedure that's worked ok so far has been to give answers then follow up with, "do you know why?" and get them to try and give a reason for my decision or judgement. I've noticed that eventually they're able to determine the reason for our parenting decisions. We also tend to give our children lots of decisions to make early on so that they're used to determining the costs and benefits of decisions, especially when it's cheap to make mistakes.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#7

Post by omarhaneef »

Also if someone has a recommendation on how to teach adults to think, that would be useful too. Ages 21-90.

(Jokes aside, is it that different? Isn't the larger question: what does it mean to "think", and what does it mean to "teach" someone to do it?)

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#8

Post by MichaelAO »

Core knowledge. Create an environment that encourages a love of reading as soon as possible and help them develop core knowledge about the world around them. This includes both language and facts/concepts about everything from ancient history to the solar system.

Domain-specific background knowledge is incredibly important. It turns out (for the most part) there are no general purpose cognitive skills... it's all domain specific. A student that knows about baseball will comprehend an article about baseball much better than one that doesn't have the core knowledge of what a run, base, double, home run, etc. means. Decoding strategies be damned.

Helping your young child develop said background knowledge will put them in a fantastic spot as they enter school. They'll 'get the joke' - it's a bit like velcro for the brain. Nothing sticks for the students that enter school without the cognitive velcro that is domain-specific background knowledge.

I know this sounds completely contrary to the progressive education philosophies that domain our culture about teaching kids how to think vs what to think... no memorization, etc. It surprised me too.

Check out the work of cognitive scientist Daniel T. Willingham, Natalie Wexler (The Knowledge gap is a great book) or E.D. Hirsch for a deep dive.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#9

Post by voisin »

I’d recommend reading up on Unschooling, even if you don’t plan to keep your kids out of school to Unschool. It is essentially giving them broad exposure to things, seeing what areas capture their imagination, and then supporting those areas as much as possible. Never forcing them to learn something because of how you feel something should be learned (which kills natural interest and excitement for learning) - they will come around to learning important things when they are ready!

You want them to think on their own. The best way to do this is to allow them to think on their own and nurture their own excitement to do so.

Re: Ask HN: Teaching kids how to think?

#10

Post by starkred »

My usual answer is 'by example'.

I like to think I'm teaching my kid to think. Last night we started wondering why fish can swim near sharks and not get eaten. We talked, we speculated, we joked, we researched and discussed what we had found.

I wasn't trying to teach her to think. I had no ulterior motives at all, I was genuinely curious about shark feeding behavior. As I look back on it now I feel like I was teaching her to think by encouraging her to think, sincerely considering her ideas, showing her how to test them, and coming away with more knowledge than we started with.

Post reply on HN