Why Teach Logic To Your Kids?
Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Spock are the logical guys. The other people in their stories are the emotional ones. But our lives aren’t really like that–we need to be both the logical guy and the emotional guy.
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. Your child will be able to make better choices, understanding the principle of cause and effect. For instance, any “friends” who push him to waste money and time may find he turns a deaf ear, because he understands the logical consequences.
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 computer logic as well. Computers think simply: if A is true, do B; if not, do C. Our own brains aren’t so linear. But learning to think in a linear manner like this will help a child learn logical thinking, a useful skill in the Information Age. In fact, a child who learns about computers can master computers eventually.