Denny Coates, PhD shares how boys who think about “why” and “what if” a lot will grow up to be men with superior minds.
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These days, parents hear about the “teen brain” in the popular media. Brain scientists have discovered that the “prefrontal cortex,” the area of the brain in charge of critical thinking, is under construction during adolescence. The consistent message is that this explains why the behavior of teens is often emotional, impulsive and risk-taking. For them, using logical judgment is like an infant trying to walk before it has wired its brain for the ability to do so.
This revelation is interesting, but there’s more. For one thing, there are life-long consequences to this final phase of brain development, a process that begins at puberty and concludes at the end of adolescence. What’s happening is the foundation for critical thinking is being wired each time a boy thinks for himself. Each time he uses the prefrontal cortex, the circuits for this mental capacity are reinforced. At the same time, the unused brain cells in the prefrontal cortex are slowly being eliminated.
This “pruning” or “sculpting” of the unused brain cells is a big deal. Not all young people exercise much critical thinking during these growing-up years, so the foundation for critical thinking they end up with will vary widely. Boys who think about “why” and “what if” a lot will grow up to be men with superior minds. The kids who don’t will have most of their prefrontal cortex sculpted away and will have limited mental capabilities.
This is a huge part of how young boys can grow up to be strong, happy, successful men. But like learning to walk and talk, this aspect of brain development isn’t a phase. Teens don’t just outgrow typical teen behavior. To wire their brains to think like mature men, they have to do the work.
Parents of boys need to care about this because the men their boys become will either be empowered or limited by their ability to exercise critical thinking. Some young men will have the brainpower to pursue intellectual challenging professional careers, and some won’t.
To grasp the gravity of these consequences, parents need to know what “critical thinking” is. Many people think it’s the tendency to criticize, a notion that widely misses the mark.
A helpful definition of the concept of critical thinking can be hard to pin down. Wikipedia has collected a variety of descriptions:
- A way of deciding whether a claim is true, partially true, or false
- A tool by which one can come about reasoned conclusions based on a reasoned process
- The mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion
- Disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence
- Reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do
- Purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based
- Using reason in the formulation of our beliefs
- Disciplined, self-directed thinking which exemplifies the perfection of thinking appropriate to a particular mode of domain of thinking
Does this help? It boils down to the skill of “connecting the dots” about how things relate to each other, such as cause and effect. This allows a person to foresee consequences, use judgment, make rational decisions, control impulses and plan. In other words, it’s the mental capability, along with language, that makes human beings different from all other species on Earth.
Pretty important stuff! We’re talking about intellect. But will the boy you care about do the work? Will he exercise critical thinking early and often?
Maybe not. After all, teenagers don’t even know what’s happening to them. Brain development is a slow, invisible, silent process. And unlike learning to walk and talk, which toddlers are highly motivated to do, teenage boys are more motivated to be “cool.”
In the past, because parents were oblivious to this dynamic, encouraging boys to think was unconscious and haphazard. Some parents, coaches, teachers and other mentors might take a special interest in certain boys and push them to think. Some kids were luckier than others.
This is essentially why, if you think about the people you encounter every day, you know that some men have superior minds, and some don’t.
And that’s why parents should care, why they need to learn how to help their young man construct the most robust foundation possible while the developmental window is still open.
Caring parents need to know that there’s something they can do to optimize this essential mental growth. The answer is to resist the natural impulse to lecture or give advice. Instead, you can encourage a boy to think for himself by being a good listener, and then asking the kind of open-ended questions that will get the child to think about an issue. I explain this in more detail in my ebook, How to Give Your Teen a Superior Mind, available free on my blog, www.strongforparentingblog.com.
In addition, a boy needs to know that his brain is developing. So using alcohol or drugs can derail normal development of the critical thinking area. This danger is exactly the same as an expectant mother abusing substances during pregnancy.
It also helps for a boy to get involved in games that require thinking, such as chess, checkers, Sudoku and Rubik’s cube. Certain courses or extracurricular activities can stimulate critical thinking, such as science, math, English and technology. Kids who try to achieve in these areas are constructing their prefrontal cortex. A job or entrepreneurial venture helps, too.
Again, the window of opportunity to make a difference opens at the onset of puberty and closes at the end of adolescence. It’s literally use it or lose it, and the end result is permanent.
Photo: ErnestoRivas/Flickr
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