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Why Teach Logic To Your Kids?

by: PhyllisWheeler
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In Star Trek, the logical mind of Mr. Spock contrasts with the emotional minds of everyone else. But this is fiction. In reality, each of us needs to be both logical and emotional.

Logical thinking may not come naturally. Nevertheless, it's a skill we each need to develop, just to identify logic traps.

Instead of just going with the flow, you can be proactive and teach logic to your child. In the process, you may get some practice at it too. Here's why:

1. Learning about cause and effect, your child will be able to make better choices. For example, "friends" who urge him to misuse his money and his time may find he understands what the logical consequences of such behavior are.

2. Your child will learn to tackle problems. Solving problems systematically involves considering a list of options. This your help your child deal with life problems as he becomes an adult--for example what to do if the sink plugs up or the car breaks down.

3. In a media culture, your child will be better equipped to evaluate advertising. He will be able to identify circular reasoning fallacies, for example. Such a fallacy would be in the advertising slogan "Happy people buy Sloan's coffee." What the advertiser is actually saying is, "Buy Sloan's coffee, and you'll be happy." Can your child identify circular logic like this?

4. What about persuasion in the media? Let's say a reporter asks five people whether they think illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay. All of them say yes. Then the reporter concludes that everyone wants illegal immigrants to be able to stay. Does your child see the problem here? The error is in the size of the sample group--too small. The reporter needs a much broader sample.

5. Your child can learn to evaluate advice on the basis of the qualifications of the person doing the advising. If your dentist tells you to floss your teeth, you will believe him -- he's an expert. But if he tells you to put an oil additive in your car, you need to weigh the advice because he's not an expert there.

6. Your child will be able to understand how computers think. Computers think in nitty-gritty ways: if statement A is true, then do action B. Otherwise, do action C. Our brains tend to skip around in comparison. But learning to program a computer to follow a logical sequence helps the child learn to think logically, too. In the Information Age, this is a very useful skill to develop, now or later. The more your child knows about computers, the more he will be master of that device that is mastering our lives.

About the Author

Investigate computer programming for children and teens and get a no-cost e-book on Internet research, the Internet Scavenger Hunt. Phyllis Wheeler provides curriculums for those who want to teach their children and teens fun computer skills.

Why Teach Logic To Your Kids?

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