The statement at the bottom of this post is true. (Keep reading but remember that.)
Have you thought lately about how agile your child is in their paradoxical thinking skills? Yeah, me neither. But maybe we can both do a little more on this now that I’ve brought it up. Paradoxical thinking is a handy tool for all sorts of situations.
Opposing Demands
How often are you and your children faced with two demands that appear impossible to satisfy simultaneously? The child needs to study but wants to play. You need to help two children at once with different school assignments. Paradoxical thinking can help you come up with solutions to these and other scenarios.
Although paradoxes often trip us up, embracing contradictory ideas may actually be the secret to creativity and leadership.
Heracleous and Robson, BBC Worklife Nov 11, 2020
The quotes above and below came from a BBC article about paradoxical thinking and its relevance in the field of business. Apparently, workers who can rise to the demands of contradictory goals are more creative and productive. Although the article doesn’t mention it, I would conclude that these people are ultimately more satisfied with their work as well.
People who were asked to reflect on the dual (and apparently opposing) requirements of minimising costs and maximising innovation were subsequently more creative than those who only considered one goal or the other: somehow, the contradictory demands fuelled their thinking.
Heracleous and Robson, BBC Worklife Nov 11, 2020
Much of my research into learning and ideas for homeschooling comes from the ‘adult’ world. I find that many higher education and business resources align with my homeschooling goals. And I share this information with my children. It helps if they know why I’m leading them down a new path.
Student Paradox Examples
Reading the BBC article made me ponder what, if anything, I’ve taught my children about paradoxical thinking. So I asked them what they knew about it.
One cited a distance example: If you are traveling from point A to point B and you go half the distance, then go half the remaining distance, and then half again, etc. – you never actually get to your destination.
Another talked about time travel: If you go back in time and kill your grandfather, you wouldn’t exist. (That son’s not bloodthirsty. The Grandfather Paradox is an actual ‘thing’.)
And my third child said, “Yeah, what they said.” Ha.
Here’s a list of fun paradoxes to get you and your children thinking.
Paradoxes and subsequent paradoxical thinking tie in with those critical thinking skills we seek to teach.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is clear, reasonable, reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do. It means asking probing questions like, “How do we know?” or “Is this true in every case or just in this instance?” It involves being skeptical and challenging assumptions, rather than simply memorizing facts or blindly accepting what you hear or read.
Lumen Learning
I most often teach critical thinking as it applies to historical research and also apply it when I look for resources for our unit studies.
As often happens, further research on this took me down yet another path… one which reinforced my gratitude for homeschooling.
Content
Critical thinking skills help students sort through the content they learn. But what many public school educators are finding is that their content is diminishing. The notion of what constitutes good content is so nebulous and at times contentious, it’s easier for public schools to focus on critical thinking skills.
In The Paradox of Content in the Classroom, public school teacher Bernie Bleske takes a close look at what has been sacrificed in the pursuit of teaching kids primarily how to think (skills) instead of what to think (content). Bleske laments the demise of content and maintains that you can’t teach critical thinking if you’re not linking it to content, something Waugh further expands on in her post “The Paradox of 21st Century Education“.
Homeschooling with Content and Critical Thinking
As a homeschool parent, you determine your content. You may follow public school curriculum but you can choose to add in some history, literature, and whatever else has fallen by the wayside for public schools. And then you can link critical and paradoxical thinking skills to your content.
Do you remember the sentence at the top of this post? (The one that said, “The statement at the bottom of this post is true”.) Okay…
The statement at the top of this post is false.
So, what’s true – the statement at the top or the bottom? (That’s my version of The Card Paradox for you – see that and more paradoxes here.)
Many of these paradoxes don’t have a solution but they do give your brain a workout. I like to think that real-life situations which require paradoxical thinking skills are a little more manageable.
