#5 tips for teaching your kids how to talk back properly

INQUSITIVE MINDS

#5 tips for teaching your kids how to talk back properly

When a child is ‘cheeky', they might be flexing the mental muscles they will need to survive and flourish in the adult world, writes philosopher HEIDI MATISONN. Here's how to teach your child the skills of critical thinking.

  • 16 January 2025
  • Free Speech
  • 5 min to read
  • Heidi Matisonn

TO avoid logic-defying arguments and endless debates, it is often not long before parents find themselves playing the ultimate trump card: “Because I said so.”

As a parent myself, I can relate. But I’m also a moral philosopher with almost two decades of teaching experience. In philosophy classes, students who question ideas – and sometimes, in doing so, challenge authority – are praised. Why isn’t the same true for children? Is a child who questions their parents “being cheeky”? Or are they flexing the mental muscles that are necessary for their intellectual growth and ability to navigate the world?

The job of a moral philosopher (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/moral-philosophy) is to grapple with ideas about right and wrong, good and bad, seeking to answer the ultimate question: “How ought we to live?” While we use a range of strategies to tackle these fundamental ethical questions, one of the most important tools at our disposal is critical thinking...

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