This is the third in the “Six Types of Courage” that we will explore in-depth. We hope you’ve already had the chance to read over our page called “The Six Types of Courage” for a brief overview of our definitions. The examples we give for each type of courage may apply to your children and/or to you —please keep in mind, when you are reading this post, that some of these examples may involve taking “baby steps” on your way to intellectual courage! Every step towards courage is worthwhile and important.
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”— Marie Curie
“The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”— John Kenneth Galbraith
“If you believe everything you read, you better not read.”— Japanese proverb
Intellectual courage means being willing to grapple with difficult or confusing concepts and ask questions, being willing to struggle to gain understanding and risk making mistakes. Sometimes what we learn challenges previously accepted ideas, or contradicts teachings of family or cultural group. Intellectual courage will be required more and more in the future, as complex structural problems of the environment, economy, and society challenge conventional problem-solving. Intellectual courage means being intrinsically motivated to learn and question, rather than extrinsically motivated. Given the information explosion of recent decades along with easy and indiscriminate access to it, being a critical thinker will only become more important, not less. Being passive recipients of information, forgetting to track sources or cross-reference data can quickly turn even the brightest minds into moldable mush. Integrity and authenticity are interwoven with intellectual courage; it means telling the truth no matter how uncomfortable.
For inspiring true stories, ways to recognize and coach intellectual courage in ourselves and our children…READ ON!
History offers great examples of intellectual courage. When we picture Galileo standing before the Inquisition, insisting that he could not recant the ‘heresy’ of his evidence that we don’t live in a perfect universe, we see intellectual courage in action.
This fascinating lecture by Dan Gilbert on TED.com indicates how easy it is to deceive ourselves, and how thoroughly we must be willing to question all of our assumptions. It’s about 35 minutes long and well worth watching; grab a cup of coffee and be prepared to think!
asking questions
listening to questions
working on puzzles and thought problems
memorizing long poems
studying music or a foreign language
applying for and using a library card
disagreeing with your own mind
seeking out opposing points of view
deciding you’d rather have peace of mind than be right
reading banned books
curiosity
taking as long as necessary to learn something, rather than being satisfied with a superficial understanding
offering opinions
listening to others’ opinions
Lack of intellectual couragelooks like:
not asking questions
not listening to questions — or the answers
giving up quickly on new material or new ideas
not admitting that you don’t know
repeating “facts” without questioning them
superstition
inability to recognize connections between ideas
lack of curiosity about other people, other ideas
pretending you don’t know what you really do know, like not opening the bills or test results
accepting the first answer
Intellectual couragesounds like:
“Can you explain that to me again?”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“How do you know that’s true?”
“Where can I find more information?”
“I get it!”
“Wow, that’s really interesting!”
“Show me how you did that.”
“I never thought of it that way.”
“What do you think?”
“I wonder if…”
“Hmm, that didn’t work out. Let’s try that problem again.”
“Are we even asking the right questions about this issue?”
“What questions would you ask if you were in my shoes?”
“I’ve got a great idea!”
Lack of intellectual couragesounds like:
“Don’t ask so many questions!”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“I hate tests.”
“I hate school.”
“I’m terrible at math/spelling/languages/reading/etc.”
“We’re just supposed to solve the problem this way.”
keep reference books handy so you can look things up (yes, we still need actual books)
get big maps for your walls and explore them with your kids
encourage your children to ask questions (and be patient when they start asking!)
pick a topic you’re all interested in and explore it together
let your child tell you something interesting (even if you already know it)
keep different kinds of puzzles and games available (using words or numbers), especially ones that require creative problem-solving or “out of the box” thinking
let your kids catch you reading
learn how to say “I don’t know. Let’s find out.”
compete to see how many uses you can find for everyday objects: pencils, paper, tin foil, sugar, money, cotton balls, CDs
play memory games in the car to encourage observation and focus
take an active interest in what your children are learning and ask them what their opinions are about what they are learning
at dinner, ask your family about what they’re reading or ask them for one new (interesting to them) fact that they just learned
share trickster tales and stories that celebrate quick-wittedness and fantastic feats
What are your ideas about intellectual courage, your parenting tips to promote it with kids, or your favorite intellectual courage story (fiction or non-fiction)? We’d love to hear from you!
