Posts Tagged ‘three eyes’

New Perspectives on Fatherhood

The Girl is approaching the ripe old age of one, and I’m finding that my perspectives on this whole skeptical parenting thing are become less abstract by the day. Call it what you will — early confusion, naive over-extension — but my views on what it means to be a father, particularly a father attempting to raise a critically thinking kid, have evolved and refined since a little more than a year ago (on the very verge of fatherhood) when I set out to build this blog.

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Full text from September 5, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: The Three Eyes, Thinking Back

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Thursday Thinkers: Too Young to Share

Thursday? Tinkering Thoughts on Thinking Tots.

Really, you know, the last thing I want for this blog is for a notion towards promoting personal integrity in children as a path to critical thought (see my explanation in “The Three Eyes“) to turn into a rant on teaching kids to share. For one thing, I don’t consider myself to be a particular good “sharer.” For another, I think this whole question of moral integrity might be wrapped a little deeper than some vague small-L liberal idealism of “why can’t we all just get along?” My disclosure is that I consider myself that small-L liberal. But I’m also a bit of a realist and sit squarely on the fence of debate on the benefits of passive versus assertive (and vice versa) involvement in society.

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Full text from May 1, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: The Three Eyes

Creative Kids for March 2008

Why creativity? As I wrote in one of my first posts, I think there are “Three Eyes” to encouraging critical thought, and one of those is Imagination. And what I wrote then still holds true: Creative imagination is a double-edged sword for a skeptic; Imagination defines the ability to construct false realities as readily as it defines the ability to extend knowledge, seek answers, and forge new questions. But we need imagination. We need to understand the power and scope of this tool, to harness its potential for the right reasons and with the right momentum. As with any sword, the more apt one is with handling it the less likely one is to cause harm to oneself and others.

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Full text from March 8, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: The Three Eyes

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The Inevitable skep/dad Dichotomy

I’ve realized that my work on this blog can be neatly divided into two categories and I thought it might be useful to define those. Hopefully this will clear things up for new readers. So, if you are a new reader this post is a good post to read because it is going to talk about the difference between these two categories. I’ve simplified them as much as I could and have called them skeptical parenting versus raising critical thinkers — and they are not contradictory ideas. Rather, they compliment each other. And just a few months into this blog are very much at the core of what I’ve been trying to accomplish — and will continue to do.

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Full text from January 6, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Meta-Skepdad, The Three Eyes

An Introduction to the Three Eyes

This is an introduction to skep/dad’s so-called “three eyes” — or as they are, plainly named, Independence, Integrity, and Imagination.

As I started work on this blog a big question burned in the back of my mind. Raising young kids is not about rational explanations, learned discussions, raucous debates, or balanced explanations. In fact, raising kids is anything but those methods. I have spoken with countless parents. I have discussed at length with friends and family the ‘tricks’ in raising kids. I have read numerous parenting books. Everyone has a solution. Everyone has an answer. Everyone has a method.

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Full text from September 6, 2007 by Brad
Filed as: The Three Eyes

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THE SKEPDAD BLOG is a place for rational, science-minded fathers to express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas about bringing up kids to be critical thinking adults in a world filled with superstition, mysticism, and pseudoscience.

MINIBLOG: Obama Trend - What does the election of Barack Obama mean for the course of science and science education in the US in the coming four years? How will this impact internationally? Discuss.
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MINIBLOG: Purity - We watched a documentary last night on TLC about the Purity Movement. Nothing like a good old fashioned biblical excuse to wrap one’s daughter in a bubble of ignorance and second class gender roles like a “sign this contract with your dad re: sex” to set society back a couple centuries. It’s as if they’re [...]
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MINIBLOG: Brain Games - I’m researching. (Or that’s what I’m calling it.) I picked up one of those “intelligence” and “brain training” games for my PSP last week. How smart will I become thanks to this five dollar exercise? Look out world: I’m about to release unlimited potential of my hitherto confined mind. *sigh*
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MINIBLOG: Drinking Skeptically, October 22 - If you haven’t made plans to attend the Edmonton Skeptics’ Pub Night tonight, there’s still time. See you there.
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TWITTER: skepdad thinks you should check out the second edition of the Skeptical Parent Crossing, Blog Carnival... >> 11 hours ago
Brad adds: As of October 2007, I'm soliciting interest for skeptics in the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada area who are interested in forming a skeptical society to contact me. Please do so through this blog or via Facebook (through the Edmonton Skeptical Society Group).

Or visit our new website: www.edmontonskeptics.org
If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make reality the basis of our philosophy? ...But we cannot distinguish what is real about the universe without a theory...it makes no sense to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what reality is independent of a theory.
- Stephen Hawking