• Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    The best thing to arm a child with is feeling comfortable to ask “why”.

    This can be a double edged sword with very talkative or inquisitive kids.

    My kid is too damned smart and wants to know how everything works, so they ask why. But often we don’t know, or they’re not satisfied with the answer and keep asking why. If screens didn’t disregulate them so much I’d go tell them to look it up, but I til then I have to answer the string of 10,000 whys (to later get told I’m wrong by the kid who had no idea what we were talking about 20 minutes ago, and is now an expert despite not looking into it at all …) and mentally scream because I refuse to douse that curiosity, even if I run out of patience for it at times.

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      I’d take the risk.

      One of the factors that has contributed to the sorry state of American voters is the distaste among conservatives for teaching critical thinking skills, because that fosters questioning authority, ergo disobedience.

      But when we don’t have it, then the most confident, loudest-voiced narcissist has an instant army of conditioned followers.

      See also the tendency in fundamentalist religions to discourage serious questions about the dogma.