Teaching Our Children To Think: It’s Important

Sometimes in the parenting world, I come across the sarcastic idea that we can brainwash our kids into believing what we want them to. And while that is possible. . . And sometimes I would REALLY like to pull it off-

What I want, is to teach my kids is to think for themselves. Read more. . . Click To Tweet

It’s scary

I may think I’ve figured some things out. My children may come to different conclusions than I have. The best thing I can do for them is to encourage them to study things out. Read different sides of an argument. Talk to people with different opinions than the opinions you have. Make friends with people who have had different experiences than your own. This gives needed perspective. Think things through, pray about it, and then make your own decision. This is what I want for my children. This is what I’m trying to teach them.

Differences

Years ago I was going to a church where the congregation was only young single adults. In the congregation at the time, there was only one African American woman- “Red”. One day I happened to realize that I didn’t know her at all and that I had been unconsciously avoiding her. As I probed “why” I had been avoiding Red, I realized it was because she was “different” from me.

This realization that I was avoiding someone just because she was different made me uncomfortable. I was the child who spent her life being “different.” I called myself out and said, “Calleen, this is just not okay. No more avoiding Red. Instead, you need to get to know her.”

I did. And I will forever be grateful that I did. She taught me SO much-

I learned about true kindness and sacrifice.

I learned about humility, about the person I wanted to be.

She showed me these things because that is who she is.

Race And How We Think Of Differences

A friend on Facebook brought this video featuring Jada Pinkett Smith, her mother, and daughter Willow to my attention. I found it a fascinating inner look into a very honest discussion about race. Take a minute and watch.

The Racial Divide: Women of Color and White Women

I don’t espouse everything that is presented in this video. But I find it intriguing.

When Jada’s mother talks about the scars that she still has from her time as a child when there were restrictions on what she could do and where she could go, I believe her. I think to myself, of course, there must be scars after being treated like that. I appreciate how honest she was.

Another point that struck home for me was when they talked about their “white family members”. She said it was easier to accept the white male family member than the white female family member originally because he spoke/acted more black than the female did.

This idea that someone is different from what we are comfortable with so we don’t treat them the same is universal. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. The differences in each of us are what makes us beautiful. It’s what makes the world interesting and fun. It’s how discoveries are made and we learn new things.

Just because you are different from me, shouldn’t matter in a negative way. Differences should matter in a beautiful way. Our children should be taught to recognize this and think about it.

10 thoughts on “Teaching Our Children To Think: It’s Important

  1. I love “differences should matter in a beautiful way.” Children and adults alike need to show respect for others. Children imitate what they see. And disrespect seems to be rampant in our society. We may not agree with everyone, but we can act in a respectful manner even when we agree to disagree.

  2. This is a tough one, I often don’t want to discuss race purely because people have so many views and it’s something that is likely to upset at least one person. I just want my boys to accept anyone and everyone no matter gender, age, race or sexuality! Thank you for sharing this with us at #TriumphantTales. I hope to see you back tomorrow.

    1. Thanks for stopping in and reading. It IS a difficult subject. But the older I get, the more I think it’s really important to have open conversations about this with our children.

  3. I agree, I think we need to teach children to think for themselves. They can learn so much from people who are from different cultures or have different opinions, and I think it teaches important lessons about listening to others and respecting them even when we might not always agree.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.