A professor of developmental psychology at Temple University has discovered through her research and decades of experience that there are six crucial ingredients to raising brilliant children and setting them up to succeed in life.
When I graduated from college summa cum laude, I realized (with a slight mix of horror) that I didn’t know very much at all because I had only succeeded through memorizing everything. I became aware that now that I was out of the educational system the responsibility for real learning was solely on me. Just because your children succeed at exams doesn’t necessarily mean they will succeed in a future career or in relationships. Hirsch-Pasek’s recommendations for how to raise brilliant kids also takes these broader definitions of success into account.
Here are the 6 C’s (or the 6 secrets) for raising brilliant kids.
1. Collaboration:
Teaching your kids how to collaborate with others is the foundation of all future success. They have to learn how to restrain their selfish impulses, how to get along with others, and how to work as part of a team.
2. Communication:
Teaching your kids how to communicate with others effectively is a key to their future success. This means they need to know how to speak well, how to write, how to read, how to understand language, and most importantly, how to listen well. (Don’t talk for your kid. Acknowledge their struggle and encourage them to take a second and try to find their words.)
3. Content:
Teaching your kids how to understand and process content is important. If they know how to study and know how to learn, they can master any field or challenge for that matter.
4. Critical Thinking:
Teaching your kids how to think critically will help them make their own decisions instead of just accepting what someone else tells them. Critical thinking is based on evidence and logic rather than emotions and memorization. Critical thinking means they will be able to evaluate something and not just take it at face value. It will also help them stay calm under pressure and stress.
5. Creative Innovation:
Teaching your kids creative innovation will help them take what they already know well and make something new. Critical thinking skills often combine with creative innovation because your kids will be able to make connections across different subjects to create or discover something new. For example, my little brother knows a lot about how things work mechanically. He also has a love for stand-up paddle boarding, so he made his own one-of-a-kind motorized stand-up paddle board through creative innovation.
6. Confidence:
Teaching your kids to be confident will help them feel safe enough to take risks. Anyone who has succeeded in something has learned the value and importance of taking risks and believing in yourself. Help them discover that it’s okay to fail; failure is part of the process. While self-doubt will limit forward progress, confidence and the willingness to risk will propel your kids on to ever greater exploration and success.
Here are some other ways to encourage organic thinking in your children. And some ideas for helping your boys achieve school success.
Readers, which of these have you had success teaching your kids and how?
Cassandra Soars has published various national magazine articles on a wide range of topics, including life in Mozambique, Africa, where she lived for five years. Her first book Love Like Fire: The Story of Heidi Baker is available on Amazon.
