A New Meta-topic?

However, I have to quibble. All ideas are NOT equally valid! Before they are scrutinized, perhaps, all ideas may have the potential of being valid, but after they have been examined, ideas are dramatically different. Some are wrong, some are questionable, some are right. Some are useful, some are useless, some are interesting, and some are boring. The value of an idea is to some extent in the eye of the beholder and there may also be some external validity (contextual or absolute depending on your philosophical leanings).

To tie this in to homeschooling - How do you approach this with your children? One advantage(?) of school is that there is never a shortage of individuals to criticize your ideas. That criticism can help you refine your ideas.

Well, Steve, I'm glad you asked this question. Critical thinking skills are important to me.

We use this dandy thing called the scientific method at our house. A child comes up with an idea. The child then tests the idea against reality. If the child's idea works, great. If the child's idea has problems, then we encourage the child to do some more brainstorming and try a different approach.

Morganne wanted to make a small horse-drawn wagon for some pioneer fantasy play. She found a small horse and made a wheeled box to act as the wagon. She tried several ways to attach the horse to the wagon. Tape didn't work. She found some ribbon and asked me to tie the horse to the wagon. I followed her instructions exactly, even though I privately thought the attachment wouldn't be very secure. When the wagon kept coming loose, she came back with the idea of making a harness for the horse, which we then did. A few more adjustments and she had a horse-drawn wagon that was able to cross her pretend Oregon Trail.

I contributed very little to the experience except some knot-tying skills.

As I homeschool, I spend much of my effort being encouraging and supportive. How do you walk the fine line between encouraging your children in their ideas and challenging them to improve their ideas?

When the children have an idea that isn't feasible, don't rescue them. Let them experience the results of their experiment. I'm a big believer in the importance of process. The process of brainstorming, testing ideas, and refining or fine-tuning solutions is very useful. If my children have an idea that doesn't work, that's a little frustrating. Fine. They have learned something.

The best thing I've done with Morganne is to encourage her to continue to work on a problem after the first solution failed. "Hmm. Using tape didn't work very well. How else could you attach the horse to the wagon?" "What else could you try?"

We adults sometimes get caught in the perfectionist trap. We think we have to get things right the first time. I don't want my children to be perfectionists; I want them to be active, busy people who are learning and growing. An experiment that doesn't work is a success; you've learned something.

And when you do challenge and criticize their work, what do you do to ensure that it is constructive?

I don't challenge and criticize their work. I simply comment on what IS and I ask questions.

A year ago, Morganne told me that Jesus was killed by pirates. Pirates, it turns out, are a type of dinosaur. I didn't correct her. Some people will no doubt think that that's irresponsible of me. I listened to her and asked her questions and let it go. Well, after living in this culture for another year, she has learned that pirates aren't dinosaurs and a bit about Jesus' life. She didn't need me to tell her what was what. She has a perfectly good head on her shoulders and I knew that she would learn the more conventional version before she reached adulthood.

If she had asked me what I thought, I would have answered her questions, of course.

In the course of typing this article, Morganne put on her rollerblades and tied the laces (a new skill). She came in to show me her accomplishment and I noticed that the blades were on the wrong feet. So I commented on how much progress she's made on learning to tie shoelaces. I then asked her if the rollerblades were comfortable even though the labels were on the insides of her feet. She decided they weren't and is now happily putting them on the right feet.

I think it's really important for children to learn to use their own minds and their own judgement. Letting them, even encouraging them, to make mistakes is an important part of helping them learn to think.

(Another meta-topic - what a lousy idea! )

A terrible notion. You got me started again. ;-)