Today's session has made a profound impact on the way I have started interacting with my son. Till now, I was under the impression that by answering his WHYs! I am increasing his knowledge about things around him. But I was wrong. I was doing the thinking for him and stopping his. Now I know there is better way to answer him. By simply asking the right questions I can direct his thinking to a new level of learning and understanding. I can make him a "thinker".
Now I am "thinking" why we focus so much on gaining bookish knowledge of facts and figures, which becomes useless unless the child understands how he can apply in real life. Moreover, the child can dig out this knowledge of facts from anywhere, internet etc if he really need to. Instead, why don't we focus on teaching them the art of thinking, questioning and finding answers.
What surprised me is that even the type of questions we may ask can take our thinking to different direction. For example if we ask WHY, Why I am …., Why are you…..Why he/ she is….we may get more of excuses, explanations or negative answers. But instead of asking why, if we reframe the questions in terms of WHAT or HOW …I can …you can or …he/she can …….we may be looking at possible solutions or something positive to look forward to. The questions on page 62 of our program manual has truly great ideas on how can we develop the art of asking meaning questions. Also, three categories of thinking – Past (where we try to analyze – "Why"), Present (where we think in terms of Feelings) and Future (Creativity- "How or Why") can give our thinking a new dimension.
Yes, for sure! Today's class has opened up a new window where I can take my thinking as well as anybody's to a higher level of understanding, creativity and learning.
Just "thinking about THINKING" since I got out of today's class……
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1 comment:
Very well written article Anu!!
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