How Do We Teach Children To Develop Their Own Opinions?

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Just try and teach your kids basic morals and human kindness. I'd imagine that they could apply those lessons to everything and form their own ideas.

wylfım dijo:
It was the saddest thing to try having discussions with people at my school and realize they had absolutely no sense of historical perspective. All of their political and moral views were axiomatic mores they absorbed from the popular culture, they didn't even realize that people could (and did) think differently in the past.
So yeah, mandatory reading of works from every period, and without putting a "modernist" lens on it.
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It really is off putting to see so many people not really consider the mindset of people in the past. And instead of learning from their mistakes, they ultimately repeat them.

Hence why you have a bunch of young people destroying statues because they memorialize the Confederacy. Who, despite being slave owners, probably comprised of lots of normal average people who most likely didn't know better and actually thought slavery was okay.

Nuance seems to be something that's lost on a lot of people it seems.
 
Exigent Circumcisions dijo:
OP, I assume you think that your opinions are your own. How did you achieve this and would it be practical to try to systematize the process?

Assuming it could be done, how could we be sure that we wouldn't just be instilling your opinions into them?
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Well, most of the time I inform myself on different historical and religious matters through reading. Not reading other people's words most of the time (like any philosopher), but just reading factual events as they occur, and perceiving them based on what is read. I try to avoid biased sources on philosophical context unless I'm interested in reading the opinions of others, particularly when it comes to philosophers. I don't think there is such thing as a free-thinker, but I do feel you could claim an arbitrary side to an argument as your own and then apply to that based on your method of how you perceive things, thus making up your own opinion.

You're kind of getting into a deep territory there. Assuming what you imply with instilling opinions into the children, this could also reach out as far as one's opinion on how to show a child how develop their own opinions, in effect also instilling your own way you would raise the child. Within that case, should we let the child learn on their own and adapt like that of an animal and adapt or should there be some guidance within?
 
Ughubughughughughughghlug dijo:
Why do put such a large emphasis on "developing your own opinions" in the first place?
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Well...it's important that in a society like ours, you recognize the ability to think and say what you think because that's not only one of the fundamental parts of communication but without a matter of saying what you want to say...well...


How do we progress in the world?
 
A classical liberal arts educational foundation and by that I mean the classics but also modern works-not the woke bullshit but the basics of literature, science and language are universal and very old. How can your child grow up to be the one to reconcile Newton physics with quantum mechanics if she/he hasn't been thoroughly immersed in said concepts but also how to articulate themselves in a way everyone and anyone can understand?

Try explaining quantum theory to someone who barely grasps the concept of classic physics. They're absolutely befuddled. Home schooling gives you the chance to expose your child to things that would never be permitted in a public school simply because certain youths are too frustrated by critical thinking and could lash out at other children, the teacher or have woke parents that sue the school district.
 
A parents job is to teach their kids right and wrong. What will kill them, what won't kill them. What are good ideas, what are bad ideas. Kids will never truly respect or appreciate a parent who does not actually set boundaries and orient reality properly for them. Once they are older and in their teenage years, then you can worry about introducing them to things like questioning authority and considering the nature of things. Which is again also an important part of parenting, as its preparing for the inevitable separation. But if you don't establish a basic foundation of morality and identity before they hit those teenage years you are in for a seriously bad time IMO.
 
This looks to be more a question of tooling than anything else, since their personality won't "congeal" until they're at least 25. So you can't do much but put all the goodies you can in their backpack and send them out there with the neccessary tools for the job.
I think there are several elements to take care of: Reading lots of old books (what have the Romans ever done for us?), learning rich and varied histories, analytical thinking (mathematics, geometry, physics), making sure they are physically competent (some combat sport comes to mind), crafts and basic home improvement, stuff like that.
Aim is to raise a well rounded individual, confident in their abilities and independent, which will give them all the elbow room to develop their own opinion. Got to always push the envelope when they're developing.
 
One problem I noticed growing up in the 80s was just how little parenting parents actually did then. They grew up during a safe era where civics and morality had been drilled into them by the school system, but now said school system had decided that it was going to focus on upping student's self esteem and giving them all trophies. Many parents were too busy working (or too naive about how well letting the schools raise their kids would work,) to give kids the kind of scrutiny and focus they would need. I know my parents didn't vet any of my older siblings' friends or monitor their activities all that well. Consequently, when they would introduce said siblings to bad activities, my parents were always blindsided.

Parents do make a difference in forming their kids opinions. And as long as parents are firm about not enabling bad behavior, things should turn out fine. But if the parents cram money into their little girl's hands everytime she screams because they'd be devastated if their daughter stopped loving them, then things aren't going to turn out very well. Same if they just bury their heads in the sand and pretend their kids aren't doing anything wrong because they just don't want to put up with the child's tantrums.
 
Simple. Encourage behaviours that would develop critical thinking. Ask them why something is, not what it is. Critical thinking is developed, not simply inherent. Many in our society lack it. Encouraging children to not simply regurgitate but to contemplate the reasons why something is helps.

When it comes to schooling, the humanities can teach this well, depending on the method. Philosophy classes should be focused around teaching children to discuss and find what ideas have the most footing and be able to answer why.

I disagree with others here that it's something that naturally comes. Look around you. How many lack critical thinking?
 
Ask them questions and treat their opinions as valid when they're at an age where they're capable of thinking about the subject in question.

This is some projection on my part, but as an adult you're a force of nature to the children in your life. So you have to regard your interactions with children before puberty as something they're going to incorporate into their model of what reality and humanity is like, possibly as a universal constant.
 
SmallTalk201 dijo:
Your goal as a parent isn't to teach them how to have their own opinion. Your job as a parent is teach them how to survive. Teach them any thing besides that and you will be setting them up for failure
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Ok I taught the kid how to cook, clean and be presentable. Now how do I expect him or her to identify a crappy friend, express an opinion in writing beyond emojis, vote semi responsibly and develop troubleshooting skills and balance a checking account? People can live and survive off welfare, crime and retail but you aren't setting yourself up or your grandkids up for life if they don't pick these lessons up and develop ambition before you throw them out the door at 18.
 
Pokemonquistador2 dijo:
One problem I noticed growing up in the 80s was just how little parenting parents actually did then. They grew up during a safe era where civics and morality had been drilled into them by the school system, but now said school system had decided that it was going to focus on upping student's self esteem and giving them all trophies. Many parents were too busy working (or too naive about how well letting the schools raise their kids would work,) to give kids the kind of scrutiny and focus they would need. I know my parents didn't vet any of my older siblings' friends or monitor their activities all that well. Consequently, when they would introduce said siblings to bad activities, my parents were always blindsided.

Parents do make a difference in forming their kids opinions. And as long as parents are firm about not enabling bad behavior, things should turn out fine. But if the parents cram money into their little girl's hands everytime she screams because they'd be devastated if their daughter stopped loving them, then things aren't going to turn out very well. Same if they just bury their heads in the sand and pretend their kids aren't doing anything wrong because they just don't want to put up with the child's tantrums.
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Somehow I don't think the prior age of having 8 children was any better for quality of parenting. As deep as my criticism of school goes, I'm not convinced that most people ever had the time or attention to do what we idealistic think of as "good parenting".
 
Installing healthy boundaries is key. Everyone I have met in life who is messed up was not demonstrated good boundaries in childhood and without those people have a tendency to swing from seeing everyone else as totally wrong or themselves as totally wrong.
People who have a well developed sense of boundaries have an ability to put forth their own views respectfully, to respond to others views also respectfully and the ability to take a step back and reconsider what their views are, based on others opinions. This doesn't mean they necessarily change the way they view things, but being able to see things from another's point of view, is a marvelous ability to hold in this crazy world we inhabit.
 
Lemmingwise dijo:
Somehow I don't think the prior age of having 8 children was any better for quality of parenting. As deep as my criticism of school goes, I'm not convinced that most people ever had the time or attention to do what we idealistic think of as "good parenting".
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Having 8 kids could work in an old farming or craftsman family. You'd work the shop or farm all day and teach your kids how to do likewise and as the first rough cohort of kids grew up, they'd teach the younger kids.
 
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