Teaching Children To Think

Educating is not easy, much less when it comes to teaching how to think. This requires effort and commitment. To teach thinking, you must first consider that our children are already capable of it, because despite their young age, they have already begun to develop abilities in logic and reason.

Contrary to what we are used to hearing, obedience to instructions is not the same as learning, and issuing commands is not teaching; it only creates submission.

You can ask pets to obey you, because they do not think and their progress occurs because they obey in exchange for a reward or attention.

But our children, human beings, despite their young age, have the ability to think, understand and reason, and of course they have the right to be themselves, with their own ideas and beliefs, even if we do not agree with them.

Without a doubt, it is very difficult to educate without asking for obedience from an educator’s point of view. It is more difficult to teach with the help of mutual respect, where we value and teach our children to think.

During childhood, we have the ability to absorb everything around us and form an idea of ​​the world, adapted to our age. This means that if we just teach our children to obey, it will be difficult for them to practice critical thinking in adulthood. They will be afraid of punishment and hesitate to express their own opinions. Children will learn that they are not important to the world, which results in a sense of insecurity.

Therefore , the difficulty of education will no doubt come when it comes to teaching the child to think, to understand, to draw their own conclusions and to make their own reflections.

Teaching critical thinking implies commitment, time, patience and knowing the right strategies. For this , it is necessary to have a reflexive, respectful attitude based on love.

Without a doubt, we must allow our children to grow emotionally healthy and make them feel loved, respected and obeyed. Thereby, they will grow up and be confident in themselves and strong enough to face difficulties in life as adults, with the knowledge of how to reflect on these challenges and make the best decisions.

To teach thinking, it is important to remember a series of educational strategies that will allow children to grow day by day by defining themselves, learning and understanding the world and what is beneficial to their life path, while always relying on love. , support and proximity. These strategies are:

• First, show and express to the children that they are the most important to us in life by sharing the affection, love and recognition they deserve for overcoming challenges, learning and growing.
• That we give them the chance to go their own way; not to give them closed or resolved situations, but rather that we let them do so through our support and company, even though they run the risk of making a mistake.
• Communication and language are fundamental, and with this we refer to the verbal, non-verbal and emotional. It is very important to talk to them in a clear, simple and affectionate way.

• It is important to listen to their reasoning and small decisions, to explain the consequences of these and, in some cases, to let them experience the consequences of their own beliefs so that they can draw their own conclusions and learn their own lessons from the experience.
• To strengthen, be positive towards them for their small successes and discoveries, and to motivate them for the things that we adults think are important for them to learn, such as hygiene habits, studies, behaviors, etc.

It is important to reach agreements, understood consequences, so that the children through communication, understanding and negotiation can participate in decisions, norms and values ​​we want to teach them. We need to encourage them to think for themselves what motivates them the most and fills them with hope.

In this way, children will grow up emotionally healthy, confident in themselves and able to make their own decisions in life.