Need ideas for a project? It is a click away. Copy, paste, you are done. Who can blame children who find this approach a lot less time consuming? But the problem could get worse if children blindly believe any information they find online. When as adults we tend to get influenced by random WhatsApp forwards, nothing stops children from accepting what the internet or chatbots offer. Unless, the matter is often addressed in classroom conversations and at home #criticalthinking
Critical thinking ability is the need of the hour.
In an age where information is easily available from multiple sources, it has become increasingly important to be able to assimilate information, draw inferences, make use of the available info after ensuring its reliability and logical plausibility.
At the Young Writers' Club, we have the tradition of sharing interesting or eye catching news that caught our attention from time to time. On one such occasion, one teen shared the news about a student dying after an epileptic attack. The news article he had read earlier reported negligence and lack of availability of immediate medical attention. Furthermore, it highlighted the distance of 3kms between the school and the hospital. The reporter reported that people are asking for a hospital in the closer vicinity of the school. The demand was 500ms. 3kms is too far! The teen who shared the news was obviously enraged and seemed to agree with the proposition which does seem very simplistic.
The incident was indeed unfortunate and absolutely saddening. While it was so easy to get carried away with the emotion and shock and support the demand for a hospital near every school, the proposition in itself is hardly feasible. Being 3rd parties reading the article, we were in a position to take the big picture into account.
Critical evaluation of the proposition
First of all, the question that should be ringing loud and clear is, did the school have a clinic or a nurses station for emergencies? Could that be a better solution rather then to build fully equipped hospitals in vicinity of every school?
Secondly, this is a one off incident. Building several hospitals in the same locality comes with its own set of challenges- place, faculty, cost involved etc. Large numbers requiring particular facility is what drives investment.
Given this a far simpler solution is to enforce a rule that every school must have a sick bay with well trained nurses to attend to emergencies until the child could get to hospital.
While it was easy to get carried away by a newspaper article proposing an impractical solution, it was even more easy for tweens to get carried away with what Google gave them for a vocabulary building activity. Synonyms of the word 'synonym' one child at the Young Readers' Club, claimed are, 'copy' and 'duplicate'. When asked how these words would mean the same as 'synonym', she innocently said, "I trust Google. That's what it said." It is unclear what she searched and arrived at this conclusion. Nevertheless the blind acceptance of the search result, without thinking twice, was alarming to say the least.
Correctness of findings, reliability of information found, etc; are aspects that need to be talked about often in classroom conversations. "How is something possible?" Ask away. Find answers. Don't believe anything and everything that you read, hear or even watch!
Another tween shared an experience of watching a video of a man falling from the spacecraft into the earth's atmosphere and landing on earth unscathed. There were gasps and awe until one of the kids raised a question, "How is that possible? For starters, he would have got burnt while entering the earth's atmosphere." That set a pause in all the gasps and awe and we found our feet firmly on Mother Earth.
Encourage children to question. Questions are good to develop critical thinking!
Frequent conversations about keeping an eye out for logic and reliability of information collected from any source is critical. The only way that can be done is by encouraging questions.
As adults we tend to get swayed by WhatsApp Forwards. Why won't children get under the same spell? Unless they don't lose their innate ability to be curious and question.
If you enjoyed reading this article, click on the button below to stay informed.
Both weekday and weekend batches are available at the Young Readers' Club for the 8-12 age group.
NEW!  Writing programs for the 8-12 age group- Young Writers' Club Jr. Â
The Young Writers' Club program for the 13-15 age group offers a weekly platform to read and discuss curated articles from the news, observe writing approaches and practise one's writing skills.
 NEW! Musings from the Young Writers' Club is an online magazine showcasing the work we do at the Young Writers' Club.
Need more information? Please fill in the contact form below. We will revert asap!
Comments