IDEA: The Importance of Subjective Questions

The New Victory Theatre, New York’s top theatre for kids and their families has a great post up on their blog.  After the success of their show Peter Pan, they asked a number of  sixth graders a crucial question– How Old Is Too Old For Make Believe?

The kids (all sixth graders at the Epiphany School in Manhattan) range in thought all over the place. Some kids said you should never play make believe- some kids say you are never too old to stop.  And some kids thought 11– definitely 11.   READ ALL OF THE ANSWERS HERE.

The wonderful thing about the post is not necessarily the answers, and not even the question (although both are great)  The really wonderful thing is the answering.  Kids being asked a question to which there is no one answer, reasoning it out for themselves, supporting their thought with arguments, logic, faith, passion, belief, and perhaps even a little bit of humor.   This is what we are training our kids brains for– asking questions to which there is no right answer, and letting them figure it out for themselves.

This is great training for life.  Later in life, on their college applications, they’ll be asked what famous person they want to have dinner with, and in their jobs they’ll be required to choose between two or more candidates for one job  slot.  They’ll have to decide what is the best place to have their wedding reception, and the best name for their child.  They’ll have to decide the right name for their blog, and what to eat for dinner and — well, the list goes on.

Life is full of ambiguity and judgement calls and subjective reasoning.  And the more kids are asked questions to which there is no right answer, the more prepared they will be to think for themselves.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Adam Gertsacov is the co-founder and co-organizer of Digital Family Summit.  He wears many hats, including those of a professional clown, an author and publisher, an artist/educator, a non-profit administrator, a P.T. Barnum impersonator, a flea circus impresario, and the esteemed hat of the Clown Laureate of Greenbelt, Maryland.