Journal 25, Week 9

How would I teach Critical Thinking to a loved one vs. an employee?

This is a little bit hard for me to imagine right now since I have no children. I am married to a wonderful woman that I could try to teach critical thinking to, but I'm not sure how that would affect the happiness of our marriage. I'll just take a stab at how I might teach this to our future children, if God blesses us with them one day.

With my tennis players, I generally will go over things at the beginning of practice. I ask for their understanding and ask for questions if they do not understand. I am very cognisant of making practice run efficiently and starts and ends on time. Therefore, I usually answer questions quickly with what I feel is the best answer. By making eye contact, I can usually see that they understand or not. If they don't, generally they are encouraged to work with their teammates together to resolve their understanding.

I would start by teaching critical thinking at a young age to my own child. If the child asks questions, I would try to always ask what they think first. If they respond with something off the wall, I would ask more questions to figure out what is really going through their mind. In the end, I would turn my answer into more of a dialogue with them aboiut the subject they are trying to learn. I would also try to get them to look things up on their own, or with my assistance so that they can see how information can be gained. With internet tools nowadays, it would be beneficial for them to learn to answer their own questions in an empowering way.