Tinker Thinkers by Susan Gardner & Amy Leask

[Philosophy Now]

Jana Mohr Lone teaches children to argue.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/109/Ti ... _Amy_Leask

[marjoram_blues]

Of all the reviews, why - oh why - was this one not chosen to be 'free'? The illustrations look fab
Meet the Tinker Thinkers !!

In their book Tinker Thinkers (2014), Susan Gardner and Amy Leask, with the help of illustrator Ami Moore, encourage children to argue...
...One of the exercises invites children to color in the conclusions of various arguments, noting that reasons don’t always appear before conclusions (“You should love your dog because dogs are always so loyal.”) Remarking that sometimes people don’t articulate all of the reasons needed to support a claim, the book observes that certain reasons are “sneaky and silent” like a table missing a leg, and require some thinking to discover, and an exercise asks children to circle the “sneaky silent reason” behind various arguments (“You should buy me a video game because I want it.” Is the sneaky silent reason (a) You should buy me whatever I want, or (b) Video games are fun?)...

...What matters, Tinker Thinkers declares, is not what people tell you to do, but the reasons they give for why you should do it. The idea is to help children to see that every opinion is not equal – that the reasons given for a belief or action can be evaluated, and some reasons are better than others. Just because someone, even an adult, says something is true, this doesn’t make it true...

...It should matter to us that children learn to think for themselves. And in order to become adept at doing so, children need practice. Tinker Thinkers is a great place to start. Colorful, fun and engaging, the book can help foster some basic reasoning and logic skills, supporting childrens’ development into more self-reflective and proficient thinkers.

© Dr Jana Mohr Lone 2015
Jana Mohr Lone is the Director of the University of Washington Center for Philosophy for Children, and the author of The Philosophical Child (2012).
• Tinker Thinkers by Susan Gardner and Amy Leask, illust. Ami Moor, Enable Training & Consulting Inc, 2014, 40 pages, $11.99/£5.89, ISBN: 1927425085

[ Also - see website: http://www.tinkerthinkerkids.com/ ]