How to Teach Your 9 year old to Think Like Einstein
In the past, we’ve explored great thinkers like Socrates, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Darwin with our children. But exposure to someone else's great ideas isn’t enough. We must cultivate the seeds of greatness within our children.
Children come here captivated by the world.
Can I touch that? Can I put it in my mouth? What happens if I drop this? What If I yell at the top of my lungs?
These represent explorations of the physical world. But something amazing happens when kids are about 9. They start exploring the abstract world - ideas that are not concrete or tangible. Abstract thinking is the mental manipulation of thoughts, symbols, and relationships beyond the physical realm.
Abstract thinking is what Albert Einstein, Alan Turning, Stephen Hawking, and Richard Feynman do. Each is famous for their intellect and in particular their capacity to understand elements of our world we can’t see, even with specialized equipment. Think of that. To be an expert in something we can’t even measure directly?
Abstract thinking is the foundation for logic, deductive reasoning, and critical thinking. While most children will naturally start exploring the abstract realm, that doesn’t mean we have no role. Indeed, supporting children through this process is critical.
Let’s go through a lesson I did to introduce elementary children to thinking abstractly.
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