Category Archives: Thinking skills

There is Falsehood, too. Teach Children About Sociopaths.

There is Truth and there are also Lies – And worse: There are Liars

In our series on How to Think Better, we had an episode that was titled “There is Truth.” Well, there is also falsehood. There are also people who regularly lie.  Pyschologists diagnose some people “pychopaths” and/or “sociopaths” — people who not only lie regularly, but enjoy hurting others. It may be analyzed that these people are demon possessed.  Let’s consider the situation in a practical manner.

We must recognize and teach children about falsehood, lies, and sociopaths.

Why This Relates to the “Learning Disabled”

This dynamic is very important to recognize and teach our children about. Children, reared in good environment, can be quite shocked, and often after bad experiences, if they do not know that some people lie, and some of those situations can be dangerous. Students with “learning disabilities” are particularly at risk for these bad experiences. It has been famously said that “LD students have bully targets on their back.” I do not know why this is so. Is it because these students also have weaknesses at noticing social cues? Or is it that they are spending so much time on academics that they fail to develop such social skills?

Three Steps for Parents/Educators

How do we, as parents respond? First, inform ourselves, and think better ourselves. Do not be snookered. Secondly, teach our children directly that there is such a thing as a falsehood, there are liars, and there are LIARS who intend to hurt. Thirdly, we must train our children not just in social skills but in character — so they do not become THOSE PEOPLE.

Overcoming Learning Problems Instead of Labeling into Entrenched, Weaponized Disabilities

Our position is that as parents and educators, we want to overcome learning problems, rather than labeling our children as disabled — thus intentionally failing to do our job, thus damaging children, thus increasing resentment in order to overturn “the hegemonic order.”

Problems need solving. Learning problems need to be solved or worked around — or in some other way to be overcome. This is the path to a successful and happy life. This is the path that works.

This is also the Biblical was to proceed. We are called to be overcomers — by faith, and woks. The Word of God and the example of Jesus and the leadership of Holy Spirit in all ways invites us to have hope, faith, hearing of good ideas, selfless service, and long-term blessing.

By contrast, there is another path. One that insists on labeling problems as either insignificant thus unaddressed — or as “disabilities.”  Disabled? meaning not able!  Labeling theory, long and strongly accepted in Psychology, Sociology and Education disciplines shows how people live up — or down — to labels. Nowhere is this more true than with children and social environment of school. Please see academic paper by Sales connecting JD and LD in the 1990s. Older, more well known work is widely known by Rosenhans, Schiff, Becker and others.

Diagnosis can be used as death knells, or as I encourage, as direction to parents and educators. However, if diagnosis are used for labeling (and they inevitably are in schools) the path is turned away from solving problems. Educators do not remediate but rather accommodate — at best. Look around. Notice, as the oldest research in teachers’ behavior showed, that teacher treat anyone with LD diagnosis/label as less intelligent. Thus, they get less, rather than more, quality education. They get pulled out of class, so they miss more. They have abbreviated curricula, missing more. They get drilled over and over again at what they are weak in, thus insuring demoralization.

But there is much more. If you have read James Lindsay, or Alex Newman, or Paolo Friere you might even be able to detect it in the critiq2ue of what we are doing by the conventional LD podcast. It is important in Marxist thought to always tear down whatever is considered normal. It is important to weaponize one group against another. Marx himself said in Das Kapital that he cared nothing for science, but only wanted to increase conflict, in order to improve society. Marx originally was thinking of class warfare. However, in the United States, where nearly everyone thinks of themselves as middle class, other conflicts have been intentionally excerbated. Whereas once the government school could not be  bother about  learning problems, and parents worked to get education for their children, since oh about 2000, public educators have been grooming students and their parents to be hostile to educators in a way to ensure the greatest conflict. Teachers are constrained by school rules; schools insist on being in complete control of any move regarding the “learning disabled.” Thus, fewer problems get fixed; fewer even than when the problem was not recognized.

This is in larger context, also a Marxist ploy. In our 5th generation warfare environment, in our cold WWIII, outside forces that have taken over the elite, are ensuring that our youth are not educated. Not in academics. Not in social skills. Not developed in anything — except perhaps in being weaponized, emotionally triggered pawns.

Once you see this, listen again to our detractors. You choose. Do you want to spend your time and money in resentment and conflict and status squabbles? Or would you like to have learning problems solved, and weaknesses overcoming by strength, and faith applied to find good ideas — for success and total well-being. Two paths. You decide.

Parsing Stories

People tell you stories all the time. You have to parse them. What is true in them and what is not?

Some of them are your friends, who are just humans and so they only have a partial grasp on things. Some of them are your friends who are just silly. Some of them are enemies. Some of them are authority figures who are duped… or worse.

In all cases, you have to parse the stories. How do you read the situation?

Check out the freebie that is a parsing challenge. How will you do?

How to Detect Lies

Next in the series on How to Think Better: “How to Detect Lies.”
Also, available now is a pdf that would be an exercise/review on our series. It is just fun. It is NOT a test for sure! It is just a chance to try to apply better thinking — and better responses to worse thinking. This one would work for children, tool.

Now, if I had interest, I could turn this into a course, and then there would be exercises and test directly keyed to the lesson. But you know… that takes time and attention. I can’t devote that much time without any kind of remuneration. Let me know if you are interested — by contributing to it.