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LETTERS TO THE HERALD

We have a responsibility to teach our children to think critically

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On a ride home from a shopping spree, I asked my 15-year-old grandson what he thought of the Jan. 6 invasion of the Congress.
“I don’t know” he said. “Did you watch it?” I asked. Yes, he had.
“Well, what do you think?”
“You’ll want me to say what you think” was his reply. “No, I really want to know what you think, based on what you saw.”
After a pause, in an uncertain voice he said, “It was bad.” But then he added something I did not understand, “But the police should have stood down.”
As we pulled into his driveway I asked “Should the police have stood down when people protested at Lafayette Square as well?” No answer.

The end of the ride was the end of the conversation and a relief to the teenager torn, I believe, between his “Democrat” grandmother and his conservative father.
The conversation made me realize that in this bifurcated time a 15-year-old can’t simply react to something he sees with his own eyes. Instead he hedges and adds the spin “It was bad but ...”
I don’t want him to tailor what he thinks and says to suit me nor his father. I want him to think for himself based on what he observes and researches, not on cable or FaceBook but on true journalism that unfortunately we are being brainwashed into thinking is fake news.
We all have a responsibility to teach our children to think critically – whether to wear a mask, or call out injustice.
Ann Marie Murray, Brownsburg


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