Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent's Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age

Spoiler Disclaimer

Synopsis

In the current digital age, misinformation and disinformation abounds in online spaces, making it more important than ever for everyone to have critical thinking skills. Starting at a young age, children must learn, not just facts and information in different subject areas, but also how to interpret what they're reading and hearing through discerning eyes and ears. In Raising Critical Thinkers, author Julie Bogart draws on seventeen years of experience in homeschooling her own children to teach parents how to foster these skills in both themselves and their children. She offers up suggested activities for kids of all ages (and even adults, too) that will help them explore their world, identify their own biases and gain fresh new understanding in order to build them into passionate life-long learners who view the world around them with a more empathetic heart.

Review

Throughout her experience of homeschooling her five, now-grown children for seventeen years, author Julie Bogart recognized the importance of teaching them critical thinking skills and developed ideas for doing just that. In her book Raising Critical Thinkers, she imparts her years of experience and wisdom on this topic. First she begins with a definition of what it means to be a critical thinker and the basic skills that need to be cultivated to become one. These skills include evaluating the perspective of the person who is imparting information, such as a character in a book, the book's author, or a speaker. One must also need to know how to parse fact from fiction. She explores some of the pitfalls of education that can be brought about by the limitations of language and grammar. We, as parents or educators, must foster a sense of empathy within our children and create a desire to be keen observers of the world around them. We must also be able to teach them to filter information through the lens of their own identity, both individually and collectively in community. Once the basics have been established, the author takes a look at how reading can be instrumental in fostering critical thinking, but how that alone often isn't enough. We must also learn through personal experiences and one-on-one encounters with people who are different from ourselves. She explains how imagination and self-awareness can also play parts in developing critical thinking, as well as learning the art of interpretation and finding the courage to change your mind when presented with compelling evidence to the contrary of what you've previously believed.

I can't recall where I first heard about Raising Critical Thinkers, but I do remember immediately putting in on my TBR list and knowing that I wanted to read it soon. Critical thinking skills are more important than ever in today's glut of misinformation on social media and the internet in general, and unfortunately there seem to be a lot of gullible people out there who believe nearly anything they read, especially if it backs up their already established point of view. As the grandmother of two preschool-age children who my daughter is planning to homeschool, I know that developing critical thinking skills in them from a young age is going to be extremely important. Even if they were going to be traditionally schooled, it would still be a priority, because schools nowadays don't always teach these types of essential skills. Since we will be approaching this from a homeschooling perspective, I was attracted to the fact the that author herself has many years of experience in this area. Throughout reading the book, I felt that she had an excellent grasp on her topic and broke it down in an easily understandable way that covers all the pieces of the critical thinking skills puzzle. At the end of most chapters, she also presents practical hands-on activities to explore the concepts that she just talked about. Each activity is formatted for three different age levels: Bright-Eyed (5-9), Quick-Witted (10-12), and Nimble-Minded (13-18). So there's something for everyone. She even recommends that adults try some of the activities themselves. Overall, this book made perfect sense to me. I could easily see how all the things Ms. Bogart discussed, combined with the activities, would definitely help foster critical thinking skills in children of all ages. I would highly recommend Raising Critical Thinkers to parents who are homeschooling, as well as to teachers who want more practical ideas for imparting this valuable skill to their students.

Visit

Julie Bogart @ GoodReads