The Quality Time Project

In the 21st century,  global values include different kinds of thinking.

Science involves asking a lot of «why» and «how» questions.  Why does it rain?  Why can’t animals speak English? How does a cat jump? How do airplanes stay up?

Technology and engineering are all about «what if» thinking.  What if I take out this Jenga piece?  What if I connect these two wires? What if I make this ramp steeper?  What if…

Mathematical thinking focuses on patterns. 21,22,23…31,32,33… Parallel lines never cross.  Fibonnacci sequences make perfect spirals.  Triangles have angles that always add up to 180 degrees.

Literature and film encourage thoughts about causality, particularly in relation to human emotions.  Professor Snape was mean to Harry Potter because he’d been bullied by Harry’s father.  Elsa, unlike most Disney characters, is a surprisingly complex mix of guilt and goodness; it may be interesting to consider possible motivations for the more two dimensional characters and discuss why, for instance, Cinderella’s stepmother is so unequivocally evil.

Logical thinking, whether as a branch of philosophy, in the form of detective fiction or simply as mathematical truths involves reasoning.  If A is taller than B and B is taller than C, then logically A is the tallest.  If all the evidence points to someone who had the means, motive and opportunity to commit the crime, then you can prove guilt.

Artistic thinking is about esthetics.  To a certain extent, it involves math because patterns are often beautiful.  Music is about harmony and how sounds and rhythms go together.  Dance is a way of showing how the human body follows lines and curves in movement.  Painting, drawing, collage and other fine arts help develop an eye for combininations of form and color.

Global citizenship is essentially related to questions regarding ways of being and doing.  Religion,  law and politics govern human interactions, economics and culture regulate how humans share resources.  Geography, climate and history all determine the paths of different civilizations and help explain why they are the way they are.

As parents and educators, we can foster these different ways of thinking in our children.