Help Children Learn Critical Thinking Skills

This article describes the issues surrounding children and youth as they attempt to evaluate information from films, television, books and the internet. How does a child understand the value of recognising a web site's point of view? What methods help a child develop and apply his or her own judgment? Minow offers a number of examples, resources, and situations that can help children shape their own opinions. She suggests that parents
can help children practice how to evaluate the validity of what they read, hear and watch.

Minow's article provides an example for how young children can think critically about information that they assimilate. Minow describes teens as able to recognise a web site's point of view and use it. As one example, Minow compares The Democratic National Committee's page to the
The Republican National Committee's page. As she points out, while they are unlikely to agree on much if they are compared, reading both can give a teenager more insight into the the issues they address. Further, Minow suggests that if teens consult an array of views this helps them better understand an issue and form an opinion.

Minow describes parents roles as offering children information sources such as web sites, television shows or newspaper articles as "a starting point for finding an answer." She indicates the need for parents to guide children through this information with a combination of sifting, analysing and judging." As Minow points out, "the best way to keep them from being cynical is to train them to be skeptical."