Comments on: Skeptical Parenting: Raising Young Critical Thinkers

By: SandiC

SandiC — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:30:24 +0000

Excellent article. I had the interesting position of becoming a skeptic after having my child. For the first 3 years of my son’s life we were church goers, my son was baptised, we prayed etc. etc. Once I “saw the light” I wondered about the best way to back track and inform my son of my misunderstandings. Fortunately he figured it out on his own. One day, out of the blue, at age four, he asked me if there really was a god. I asked him what he thought and we reasoned it out right then. I’m pretty sure he figured out the truth about Santa at the same time but was seven before he finally asked me “If I don’t believe there is a Santa, will I still get presents?”

By: Heidi

Heidi — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:10:36 +0000

Anonymooose, it depends on where you live. In my area, almost all private schools are religious based.
However, there is one that is not, but it is $10,000 per year, so even if Carl Sagan’s ghost was the headmaster, my son could not go.
You just have to ask around to local parents who are also non-believers.

By: anonymoose

anonymoose — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:10:21 +0000

How does a skeptic inquire into the quality and value of a private education that still exists within the doctrinal system forced upon us by civilized life?

By: Angel

Angel — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:26:42 +0000

Nice piece of work madam! Although I am not a full blown skeptic (yet) my children will be raised to question everything. What else can you expect with a scientist mom around? I have often thought about how we will approach some of the early questions from them on topics such as evolution. It is really nice to know there are so many resources out there!

By: Rev Matt

Rev Matt — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:15:40 +0000

Excellent article, I really enjoyed it. I’ve always been a skeptic (e.g. I don’t recall a time when I wasn’t, although I can only remember with any real clarity back to elementary school) so I’m a little unsure how to *teach* critical thinking since I never was taught it myself.
When my daughter eventually asks about the first humans I’m likely to go a different wrong route than you and start with “Well, do you know what DNA is? Let’s start there”.