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

ulie Bogart has spent three decades working with young kids, she has home-educated her 5 kids. Her company has coached thousands of students of all ages to think and write well. She answers these most sought-after questions in her book

What is a critical thinker? How can we teach our kids to differentiate bias from belief or facts from interpretations? where to well well-informed opinions come from? How do schools and the internet influence how kids think? how does their identity influence their learning?

Children are always interpreting the information around them, they are making meaning for themselves. Without being aware kids evaluate evidence and form beliefs. They form new beliefs as they grow and discard the old.

They are exposed to religious and nonreligious beliefs and political, social, and moral issues. They hear what we as parents say about other people, and they make connections. They see how we react to news events on television or read in the paper. They are constantly trying to make sense of it all.

Children ask questions like why countries have far, whether they should have wars or not, should people o to war or not, Julie Bogart says that to have thought that is deep, sober, and purposeful we need to raise kids who are critical thinkers.

Kids are on social media all the time they are listening to different rants and opinions that are not always based in reality. It is important to help kids discern between what is true and what is not, what is helpful and harmful, and what is important and unimportant.

There can be situations where kids come across logical interpretations of a belief that we hold in our culture ad family, though there are chances that we are raising kids who might challenge our viewpoints, it is important that we provide them with the tools to think critically about all beliefs, not just the ones we hold.

What is critical thinking?

The ability to evaluate evidence, to notice bias as it kicks into gear, to consider a variety of perspectives, and then to render a possible verdict - what you believe to be true, for now, is the heart of critical thinking.

What will raising critical thinkers lead to?

Bogart says critical thinkers become versatile readers, skilled writers, and consequential adults, they have engaged students in and out of the classrooms. They innovate, they challenge the status quo, they vote and volunteer and they make thoughtful contributions where they work.

They acquire the skills they need to thrive in their chosen field and lives.

To be a critical thinker is to be a person with insight, empathy, humility, self-awareness, mental acuity, and intellectual aliveness.

This definitely means we have exciting work ahead of us as parents, educators, and citizens.

How to verify the credibility of the information?

Bogart says education is not a walk of neutral information, mastered for a test. is the ability to identify the storytellers, evaluate resources, question perspectives and determine the usefulness of viewpoint at a particular moment in time.

Every file of study whether its history, literature, mathematics, sociology, psychology, etc comes to us through a lens, they are told by a storyteller who interprets the information.

Our kids need to address their common thinking to make meanings and judgments when they are reading texts. So to be a critical thinker means getting comfortable noticing our reactions that come from our personal knowledge, beliefs, or interpretations of right vs wrong. To be critically thinking is also to be able to understand our thoughts and self-awareness.

We are always seeking validation of our beliefs, we disregard information that does not fit with what we want to believe.

She suggests a great activity for kids when they read to deeply engage:

Who's telling the story, do you believe the narrator, Whose story is being told, Retell the story from a different character's perspective, how does it make them feel - name the emotions.

How to Separate the facts from their fiction?

With the speed of the internet and the ability to manipulate information, it is more important than ever to be able to tell what is true and what is not. Bogart says that we need to build a vocabulary for these 10 words- Fact, opinion, Interpretation, perspective, evidence, biases, perspectives, prejudice, Belief, Story, and Worldview.

Fact: something that can be proven to be true

Interpretation: What people make sense of the fact they read

Evidence: it is the source material that allows students to make claims about facts

opinion: formed after considering a variety of perspectives

Prejudice: Fault assumption drawn on existing stereotypes

Perspective: How does the issue appear from a particular frame

Bias: When a person uses his own experiences as the reference point for the view.

Belief: Shaped by religion, identity, and culture

Story: It's a fiction or narrative we create to bring together all those pieces of data, opinions, beliefs, and perspectives

Worldview: It is the totality of what we know and what we don't.

The difference between traditional education and vibrant education as Bogart explains is that traditional education is designed to promote mastery of methods and right answers while vibrant education is about grappling with big questions and multiple perspectives.

I like this quote from her book, " Education is suffering from narration sickness, the teachers talk about reality as if it were motionless, static, compartmentalized and predictable - Freire

I like her take on Multiple choice questions, she says choosing single answers that are too timed, the student is unable to think or reflect. In the words of Marcy Cook Educators should be questioning not to guide student thinking in line with theirs but to provoke thinking and to discover what students know and understand.

Critical thinkers grow in an emotionally stable, supportive environment where real problems are explored by teachers and students together.

Our curiosity follows an inverted U, we are most curious when we know a little about a subject but not too much according to George Loewenstein.

Generally, we hold the idea of getting educated to get a job to earn money and have a good life, what if we could tell kids that learning is not primarily for earning or power but for gaining wisdom and putting knowledge to use for the betterment of all?

How do games help kids think better?

Gameplay is unique for children because they choose it and feel motivated to overcome the unnecessary challenges it provides them. kids care about playing well, playing to win, and using strategies to improve. Games provide other thinking skills like flexibility of mind, persistence, questioning, striving for accuracy, imagining, and innovating along with thinking with clarity.

Children enjoy sports, and comic books because they get an experience of personal power and direction because they are in a relaxed alert state also referred to as thematic attractors by brain researchers Renate and Geoffrey Caine. "Gamers learn to think creatively, tolerate ambiguity and delay gratification all of which are essential for the genuine expansion of knowledge.

The positives of gaming go well beyond entertainment and emotional health, gaming creates positive stress that helps players achieve flow and the experience of being in the zone as pushed by the challenges in the game. Children care about games no wonder they are able to persist through setbacks, innovate solutions, and overcome obstacles.

Some tips to be careful about what we read on the internet

1. Learning how to verify information - both data and sources. Children should be taught to be mindful of how data is measured, and what are its benchmarks.
2. It's important to verify the credibility of the sources. (who is providing the information, evaluating claims, if the source is reliable)
3. Researchers recommend a method called lateral reading. After finding the original source, you should look for other sources that either support or refute it. (getting into the practice f finding more about the organization, the experts, writers' authority)
4. Is it a credible source (is the information current, information is verifiable, detailed, presents balanced on the subject)
5. Red flags in articles (Tone and language, look for assumptions, crowdsourced information, opinion pieces that relies on one viewpoint)
6. A quick way to check for writing using CACAO ( Currency- look for publishing dates it's current or not, Accuracy - the sources of information provided, Coverage- is it detailed and verifiable, Authority- are the author's credentials stated, Objectivity- what is the goal of the article, is it balanced)

How important are our backgrounds and experience when learning?

Bogart says we are a bundle of needs and a collection of quirks learned from our favorite people. According to Ezra Klein the author of why we're polarized, we will never know how fully we've been shaped by our contexts. Who we are, where we grew up, and whom we've learned to trust and fear. love and hate, respect and dismiss it's deeper than conscious thought."

Economics, gender, race religion, location, profession, education - these factors add up to providing us with prospects or barriers to participation.

According to Dr. Gholdy Muhammed who promotes the study of identity as a key component for becoming a well-educated person, he says identity has three key features: "who we are, who others say we are, and whom we desire to be"

Who you are is the sense of self that is inherent - what you know to be true about yourself, where you are from, what likes and dislikes you have, how you make sense of your life, and your personal needs.

Others say you are pointing to the community to which you belong and the communities beyond your own that define you. Our first community is our family and then the faith groups that our family follows etc. How others see who we are is inclusive of what people disapprove of us.

Lastly Whom you desire to be - this hunger to become an idealized version of self in order to be seen in a specific way exerts an enormous influence on who you become.

Bogart suggests that to grow a rich plant we need fertile soil, same way to raise self-aware kids we need to create space where they have the opportunity to develop a broader perspective.

How to Raise Critical Thinkers by Julie Bogart is a book that explores how parents can help their children become more self-aware and develop critical thinking skills.

Bogart also stresses the importance of allowing children to take risks and make mistakes. She believes that children learn best when they are given the freedom to explore, experiment, and learn from their own mistakes.

Additionally, Bogart encourages parents to model critical thinking and problem-solving skills themselves and to be open to learning alongside their children.

Why you should consider reading "Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent's Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age" by Julie Bogart

It provides valuable insights and strategies for helping children develop critical thinking skills in the digital age.

This book is written for parents and covers topics such as:

1. How to encourage independent thinking and creativity in children
2. Strategies for promoting critical thinking in the classroom and at home
3. Ways to help children navigate the digital world and evaluate information online
4. Techniques for fostering a growth mindset and encouraging perseverance

There are some amazing exercises for parents to do with their kids of different age groups.

Bogart also encourages parents to develop a growth mindset in their children. This means encouraging children to see mistakes and failures as opportunities to learn and grow, rather than as a sign of failure.

Overall, Julie Bogart's approach emphasizes fostering curiosity, creativity, and self-directed learning in children, and encouraging them to take risks, make mistakes and develop a growth mindset.

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