Raising a Thinking Child in a World That Prefers Zombies

Here is another guest post — this time by my friend John Rosemond, the national parenting expert. (e.g., see his website and many good books listed there. This commentary is from his Substack on parenting…

Note: I’ve written a few times about the best way to teach children, etc. to be Critical Thinkers — e.g., here and here.

Parents, you’ve been lied to.

Schools aren’t teaching your kids how to think — they’re teaching them what to think.

Want to raise a real critical thinker?

First step: TAKE AWAY THE SMARTPHONE.

Second step: READ THIS. 👇

(Warning: Common sense ahead. Proceed at your own risk…)

A regular reader asks, “I have been reading about teaching children to think critically, but don’t really understand what that means and how, exactly, one teaches it to children. Can you help me?”

Hopefully, possibly, probably, and let’s give it a try and find out.

In a nutshell, a person who thinks critically has assumed he may be wrong about everything he believes and sets out to either prove or disprove that hypothesis.

To give a personal example, in my early 40s, I decided to put my belief in Darwin’s theory of evolution to the test. I grew up with parents—mother and stepfather—who taught Darwin’s theory at the university level and seized upon every opportunity to make sure I became one of his disciples, which I did.

I was maybe 42 when I decided to put Darwin to the critical thinking test. I began by doing a deep dive into books that contradicted his conclusions and argued for intelligent design—God, that is, albeit the authors in question were careful not to admit that the God of Judeo-Christian scripture is the ONLY alternative explanation that fits the evidence.

My new mentors—I began with several of Phillip E. Johnson’s books and continued my explorations from there—convinced me of several things:

• Darwin was a genius and his theory was elegant.
• Darwin lacked scientific knowledge that was not discovered until the later half of the 20^th century, knowledge that would have caused him (because he was a genius) to believe in Supernatural Creation.
• Since he published his theory in 1859 (On the Origin of Species), evidence that would support Darwin’s theory of trans-species evolution has been lacking to non-existent, and evidence that contradicts it has been abundant.
• A 166-year-old theory that lacks a substantial body of confirming evidence is not worthy of further scientific efforts.

And so, at the age of 45, approximately, I rejected the atheism of my parents, embraced belief in God, and eventually became convinced that the creation account contained in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis is completely factual (albeit not written in scientific language). I did not, however, come to believe in the Gospels until I was 50, but that’s a separate story.

That’s an example of critical thinking. I began my journey to theism by assuming that believing in Darwin’s theory required more proof than my parents had provided. Upon setting out to find that very proof, I came to the one conclusion that would have horrified them. Such is the nature of truth…it is often NOT what one wants to hear.

Children are not born critical thinkers, but they are born with the ability to become critical thinkers. Unfortunately, that ability is not being properly nurtured in the typical home and is definitely not being nurtured in today’s public schools (albeit some public school teachers do a fairly good job with it).

RABBIT HOLE: My wife and I were fond of telling our children, “Don’t tell us what other kids have that you don’t have and can do what we won’t let you do because in almost every case, that will only make it less likely that you will ever have or be able to do those things.”

That was standard parent practice until the 1970s, when parents decided, en masse (I applaud the increasingly rare exceptions), that their kids were not going to experience “deprivation” of any sort. And so, many of today’s parents think nothing of giving their kids mind-numbing “devices” when they are toddlers, and the numbing proceeds downhill from there. Quite simply, one cannot learn to think critically about the real world if one’s “world” is not real.

Concerning how to promote critical thinking skills, letting your child(ren) have “smart” devices (clever name, ain’t it?) is my top “DO NOT DO THIS” recommendation. And now, having gotten that out of the way, here are three “DO THESE INSTEADs”

1. Help your child refine his thinking: When he tells you he thinks this about that, ask him, “Tell me how you came to that conclusion?” or a similar question that challenges his beliefs and opinions.
2. See that he develops a musical skill: Teach or have someone teach him to play the piano, guitar, or (anything besides the glockenspiel). Learning an instrument opens up all sorts of cerebral pathways and…who knows?…may lead to a lucrative career in a heavy metal band. That was a joke.
3. Put his critical thinking potential to work! Teach (or have someone else teach) him a trade skill like carpentry or plumbing. The trades are constant exercises in problem solving. Good stuff, and…who knows?…may lead to a lucrative career in constructing small nuclear reactors. Not a joke.

In conclusion, helping your child develop critical thinking skills is second only to helping him develop a self-deprecating sense of humor.

That wasn’t a joke, either.

Copyright 2025, John K. Rosemond

©2025 John Droz, Jr. All rights reserved.

Here is other information from this scientist that you might find interesting:

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I also consider reader submissions on Critical Thinking on my topics of interest.

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

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