Teach Your Child How to Think

by Edward de Bono

The greatest gift we can give our children is the ability to think for themselves. Edward de Bono, the lateral-thinking pioneer, shows in a simple and practical way how any parent can develop the thinking skills of their children. This is not about winning arguments, learning facts or articulation, but about constructive thinking, making the right choices and decisions, planning and creativity. This book gives invaluable techniques for coping with the many problems and opportunities that lie in wait for your child. It might just be the best start you can give them in life.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Psychology, Education, Self Help, Personal Development, How To

313 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 1994

About the author

Edward de Bono was a Maltese physician, author, inventor, and consultant. He is best known as the originator of the term lateral thinking (structured creativity) and the leading proponent of the deliberate teaching of thinking in schools.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm still digging through the introductory material, and this author already has me pissed off. This seems to be his purpose, since the opening bars are engineered to antagonize every category of potentially interested reader. He then meanders aimlessly and uselessly through a string of inept analogies and mixed metaphors. He has a great deal to say about what thinking is not, but never what it is, and seems confused about what several types of thinking are for, like his assertion that critical thinking is always negative or pessimistic. Though he states (again, and again, and again) that this is not a philosophical treatise on thinking, but a practical guide to it, I have seen nothing but philosophy so far, and no usable definition or explanation of what he thinks thinking is, only that is is completely different from every other form of thought discussed and dismissed so far. His writing style is best described as zombie-like: plenty dull but not forceful enough to be called bludgeoning; he repeats himself and hopes to convince the reader by geological erosion.

I'm still hoping that some of the thinking exercises are actually interesting and useful, if he ever gets around to telling us what they are instead of telling us how great they're going to be once we get to them.

[عبدالرحمن عقاب · Rating 3 out of 5]

القراءة لدي بونو ليست ممتعة .
وتظهر على شكل قفزات وان كانت مترابطة.
لا شك أن دي بونو يعرض في كتبه تأملات عميقة في عملية (التفكر) ويقترح أساليب جيدة ومفيدة وعملية جداً للارتقاء بالتفكير. إلا أنني أرى في كتبه إسهابا وإطالة يمكن الاستغناء عنها . كما أجد عنده محاولة متكلفة لاقرار نماذج ومصطلحات يمكن اختصارها، و تبسيط عرضها .
أيضا يمكن تلخيص كتبه على تنوع عناوينها من خلال فكرتي التفكير الجانبي (وهي فكرة ذكية جداً ورائعة) و فكرة القبعات الست (وهي فكرة عملية صيغت بقالب جميل)

[Keyvan Bashash]

It is not about teaching your child how to think, it is about ourselves learning how to think correctly at first and then teach to our children. This is a book for everyone, even without any child, by this title, the author wants to say "we should learn how to think so our next generation will know it".

[Bhavesh Desai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book. Thinking was always illusory and creative thinking was beyond reach of layman.
De Bono step by step explain, teach, about how to think.

I got following benefits-

1) Relief to know and to experience that thinking can be teach and learned.

2) It provides structure, tools, techniques to think, quickly and effectively.

I am sharing the exercise given in the book with my son and he is not bored yet.

Worth reading and implementing.

[Tuong Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was awestruck by this 2nd book I read from de Bono. Here are (almost) all of the newly-revealed secrets of clear thinking (beside logic). Each concept is explained briefly what it is how and when to use it most effectively, some examples and exercises. This textbook layout is easy to approach at any interesting point. Perhaps assuming that readers/users have read his other books before use this one as a text book to teach children, it does not go too deeply into explaining the inadequacy of common way of thinking (or not too much thinking) like his other works, rather focuses on the practicality of the tools (this mercifully shorten the book).
The book is divided into 5 parts. The first is intro and how to use the book. If this is the first de Bono's book you read, perhaps you should skim over a little bit. Or if using this book to teach children, gleaning the part related to from which age could learn which tools. Otherwise, skip this because it drags on over 60 pages. You feel like forever, still there is no sights of the promised secrets. Just jump straight to Part Two where thinking modes and attention-directing tools are.
These 6 thinking hats and a bunch of acronyms like CAF, APC, OPV, C&S, PMI, AGO, FIP, and some other bits are extremely helpful to see a whole picture - with this, no longer the sins of myopia or narrow-mindedness. Perhaps, this is how such wise sages see the world around them.
Part Three is interesting in the sense of exploring the mysterious art of creativity, now provided with tools. Rather complete collections, other creativity-teaching books might just provide this much.
Part Four returns to the "contemptuous" judgment. But then it is no longer the criticism/argument type of judgment but practical operating decisions that goes to the far end of judgment and deal with possibility and vagueness - we no longer operate on the "either this or that" certainty of logic anymore.
Part Five contains of some fun games to practice the tools. Go at as one's leisure.
A compilations of (almost) all the thinking tools, bound within a book to be use as textbook for teaching thinking to children. This book really delivers what it sets out for. If you have not known these tools before, it is truly an eye-opening experience, a pleasure not many books have succeeded.

[Selmoore Codfish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the other people rating the book say that Part One is dry, theoretical and tries to scare off readers. If you want to jump right in, then skip to Part Two. Odds are that if you have the book in your hands, you already agree with what the writer says in Part One. From Part One, I had heard a lot of what he'd said before, but I read it and benefited from it.
The following parts discuss types of thinking in good detail and provide clear examples on how to implement those types of thinking skills.
The book is essential for teachers. In the age of standardized tests, thinking has become too much about memorization. What we should be focusing on is thinking.

[Marwa Abou Seeda · Rating 5 out of 5]

BrainStorming !!!!!

YET, complicated writing, u can get pissed off from the beginning and not complete it..

My advice? Give yourself time and don’t bother yourself finishing it, just read and think..

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Skimmed almost the entirety and found nothing worth reading.

Okay, I don't even know how to classify this, twaddle comes to mind though. This author is very in love with the words he's coined for things, to the point he will tell you exactly how to pronounce his abbreviations and tell you that a word he made up is now in the dictionary, but the thought that anyone would in regular everyday conversation say we're going to "put on our black hat and think this matter through" instead of "let's think of whether or not this is really a good idea and can be done safely" is pretentious.

I skimmed through the first part hoping the application part would be worth it, but I skimmed that part even more, like skipping pages and fast skimming all the section's first lines, so I don't know, if you actually read it word for word, I give you a gold medal. I have more to do with my life than relabel thinking and then try to teach my kid to put on their red hat instead of just asking "how do you feel about this situation?" or asking them to CAF (said like caff not C.A.F!) instead of just asking them to be sure they've considered all the factors. Which I ask such things already naturally.

The AMOUNT of explanation for such simple ideas boggles my mind, it made these Einstein quotes come to mind, "Genius is making complex ideas simple, not making simple ideas complex."/ "Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple." Therefore, I wrote off the author as someone I needed to learn from and moved on. (The author has died, so I'm not worried about hurting his feelings thankfully).

I was really hoping for some cool practice for improving my kids ability to think that I've never naturally done before, but didn't get it.

[Demi Yilmaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just one word. Wow.

This book is a library of thinking tools. It is amazingly well collected and gives a good idea on what the tools are. The author does workshops on the tools and says that the book will not teach you the tools completely we should join his workshops. Which I agree. Each tool needs a few hour workshop.

The reason why I gave it a 3 star rating is because of the way it is written. The connection between elements & stories aren't there. It is already mentally draining to understand the tool and the way it is written makes it worse. I become anxious just by reading it.

If someone were to read this book, I recommend skimming it and only reading a part that interests you.

Better yet it would be amazing if someone turned these tools into proper lessons. Also, it would be better if instead of laying out 50 tools like this, ranking them and telling the reader to focus on the 3 that will make the most impact.

Lastly, there is no way kids will enjoy these practices. The parent needs to turn these thought experiments into something the child would enjoy doing. Even I got bored in all the thought experiments, I can't imagine a child going through it. The author should have made it easy to teach the child.

Anyway, some ideas in this book are amazing and I've added them to my blog: https://mmpractices.com

[Waqas Manzoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book opens with wonderful facts and myths about thinking skills. It's not only for children but anyone can get benefited from it. No matter what age group you are coming from.
The techniques and new vocabulary just create new neural pathways which help you broaden your perspective about possibilities. These possibilities are keys to stretch your thinking skills and make them useable for experimenting new ways of learning.
Most importantly exercises at the end of every chapter just give you exercising and building new patterns of thinking.

[Kian.ting · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the 6 hats thinking it’s time for craft work to create the hats. Have to research more into lateral thinking and extract the thinking games to play with my son.

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's more of a text book....so a little boring listened to the audiobook but I think it would have been better if I read it. Apart from that in all what he's talking about I can sum up by saying this I believe open-ended questions make people think more deeply so it's always good to ask kids questions that don't have one right answers.

[Karen ⊰✿ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though I had this on audio, I found it very hard going. It is basically de Bono preaching his Six Thinking Hats concepts and the myriad of acronyms that go along with it. I guess there is value in school kids doing some of the exercises to understand people think differently, but there really was nothing new or interesting in this.

[Abe Hanara · Rating 4 out of 5]

great read for both parents and non-parents. This book helps understand how certain thinking traits were developed as a child and suggested to me ways to unbundle less effective thinking habits and how to redesign my developed thinking habits. very insightful.

[Cvetelin Andreev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Превода е ужасен :)

[Srinivasan Nanduri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bunch of tools and techniques that can be used for thinking.

Some of my key takeaways..


1. THE SIX THINKING HATS
WHITE HAT: Facts, figures and information. What information do we have? What information do we need to get?
RED HAT: Emotions, feelings, hunches and intuition. What do I feel about this matter right now?
BLACK HAT: Caution. Truth. Judgement. Fitting the facts. Does this fit the facts? Will it work? Is it safe? Can it be done?
YELLOW HAT: Advantages, benefits, savings. Why it can be done. Why there are benefits. Why it is a good thing to do?
GREEN HAT: Exploration, proposals, suggestions, new ideas. Alter-natives for action. What can we do here? Are there some different ideas?
BLUE HAT: Thinking about thinking. Control of the thinking process.

2. CAF: Consider All Factors
CAF is an attention-directing tool. CAF is a tool designed to increase the breadth of perception. What are the factors that have to be considered in this matter?
The more you use the tool in a deliberate manner the more of a tool it becomes. If you are shy about mentioning the tool, it does not become usable as a tool but remains as a weak attitude.

3. APC: Alternatives, Possibilities, Choices
There are many sorts of alternatives:
PERCEPTION: The same thing can be looked at in many different ways.
ACTION: Alternative courses of action that can be taken in a situation.
SOLUTIONS: Alternative solutions to a problem.
APPROACHES: Different ways of tackling the problem in order to find a solution.
EXPLANATIONS: Alternative explanations of how something happened. Alternative hypotheses in science.
DESIGN: Alternative designs, each of which fulfils the purpose of the design (machines, buildings, posters etc.).

4. VALUES
In mathematics and in logic puzzles it is enough to get the right answer. Real life is very different because values are involved. Values are part of thinking. Values usually involve other people. A logically correct solution to a problem may be unacceptable because it goes against people's values (which may be illogical).

5. OPV: Other People’s Views
The world is full of people. Thinking is done by people. Thinking affects people.
The two key questions are:
1. Who is affected by this thinking (action)?
2. What are the views (thinking) of those affected?

6. C&S: Consequences and Sequel
Never mind about the 'sequel' part. treat this perception tool as 'consequences'. The tool is pronounced 'C and You could make a case for saying that this is the most important of all the thinking tools in real life. If your thinking is going to result in action of any sort (decisions, choices, plans, initiatives etc.) then that action is going to take place in the future. So you have to look at the consequences of that action.
Will it work out?
What are the benefits?
What are the problems and dangers (risks)?
What are the costs?

7. PMI: Plus, Minus and Interesting
Many highly intelligent people use their thinking to back up or defend their immediate judgement of a matter. The PMI is a perception-broadening tool (attention-directing) which forces a thinker to explore the situation before coming to a judgement.
The PMI is an exploring tool and also an evaluation tool.

8. AGO: Aims, Goals and Objectives
Pronounced: A-G-O
This is another of the CoRT perception-broadening, attention-directing tools.
AGO is related to the thinking habit of wanting to know the focus and purpose of thinking at every moment. AGO, however, is more concerned with the over-all purpose or objective of the thinking than the moment-to-moment focus.
What is the objective of our thinking?
What do we want to end up with?
As soon as you have a clear view of the ideal outcome of your thinking effort — then you have a clear AGO.

[Matthew Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very practical. I value that aspect of it. I admire the work that De Bono has gone through to decompose thinking into a very discrete toolkit that can be immediately applied.

De Bono as a writer and thinker is very structured, sometimes to a fault. His instructive tone verges on dictatorial and controlling. Since this work realistically boils down to a next-generation pros-cons list, the way De Bono creates a moat for his ideas is by forcing them upon the reader in a very non-negotiable, not-flexible manner. He makes sure to remind the reader of how widely adopted his ideas are. One of the main faults of the book is the length dedicated in the beginning to telling the reader of his many accomplishments.

Looking past the self-aggrandising narrative, there IS great value within. The section on lateral thinking and creativity is brilliant. Ignoring the enforcement of arbitrary procedures such as use of the word “po” for provocative ideas, the content is helpful to structure the process of idea generation. I agree with De Bono on the necessity of breaking free from the self-organising properties of our brain.

It is refreshing that he framed this book with a pedagogical perspective. The exercises within are effective at covering examples that children and adults alike can benefit from and practice with.

In sum, this could be a very instrumental book for me and my approach to decision-making and idea generation. Time will tell if I tire from the rigid and structured nature of De Bono’s tools, or if a wandering gradient of techniques is best suited.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An interesting dip into Edward de Bono's life work. De Bono is obviously incredibly intelligent. But, while the ideas are unique and intriguing, he definitely does not know how to write with children in mind. This book is not easy to follow and his writing is not in a way that will lead to logical progression. I looked through all the hundred books he has written and it seems from the titles that he was very much a same-meat-different-sauce kinda guy. Whether he didn't know how or didn't care he conveys his message through a thousand pictures of slightly different perspectives rather than clarity and persuasion. All the same, I'm really intrigued by his ideas. He takes a unique approach to creativity through systematic processes and approaches to thinking by practice. I don't think he has it, at least not in this book, but I think this is a really effective first step to get to systematic creativity. If he presented his work in a more coherent way I bet you could really work with it to see if it actually worked in an academic sense. I'd love to have a rundown of takeaways from his works, but at the same time I don't want to hunt up all the old articles and reviews to understand his main messages he conveys through 85+ books. There is something here to explore, if I can ever come across some better books of his that explains it. Very much like Eliyahu Goldratt's The Goal. So I'm going to put it on my read again bookshelf to remind myself to revisit him someday.

[Ed Sellier · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Thinking is the ultimate human resource… Real life, is very different from school sums. There is usually more than one answer. Some answers are much better than others: they cost less, are more reliable or are more easy to implement. There is no reason at all for supposing that the first answer has to be the best one.”

Highly original, developmental text to guide one’s approach to thinking about problems and thinking about solutions. The “thinking hat protocol” is a brilliant way to guide the type of cognitive processing that best fits the situation or challenge (evidence gathering, analysis, creativity and provocation). It’s an especially useful framework for nurturing children to find humility in thinking for themselves (the process > the outcome in AI’s instant answer era) and take pride in themselves as “thinkers”. My only critique is de Bono can meander with ponderous theory which stopped me turning the pages. Perhaps that was his intention - is this passage really worth thinking about? If so, stop reading and think.

[Eleena Syuhada · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad bought me this book back when I was still in school but as a teenager, the title wasn’t so attractive to me. But I was wrong! This book is a life-changing read! It presents different approaches to thinking that we may already know but fail to distinguish in daily life. We may have gone through the practical of the techniques of thinking without realising. This book emphasises on the importance of thinking slowly, considering all factors and alternatives - even the impact on other people, looking at a wider perspective before coming to a decision. Dr De Bono also introduced so many tools to stimulate thinking and idea generating that are easy to be understood and applied in real life. A recommended read for everyone of all ages and backgrounds!

[Aurelija Zagurskytė · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've heard of this book in one of the brilliant YouTube videos from the sir. Atomic shrimp, seriously addictive and inspiring. Even though this genre is not my cup of tea at all, I gave it a try. After reading the book I feel like I had a four hours meeting when it could have been an email. A pamphlet. A sticky note in my notebook. Now I can't decide whether the book went on for too long with all the unnecessary fillings or I have become THAT person that wants everything already chewed up and digested. I could have made a summary of 3 to 4 pages out of everything in it. And you would not miss a thing. However, I have never tried this different hats method, so I might even try it in the future. I will deff try to make a meal out of 1 Eur or so for my family.

[Ryan Barretto · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read. Mr. De Bono's language is simple, and it encourages you to think at every stage.
There are some interesting exercises at the end of the book, where he shows you how to blend his thinking methods and tools to generate better results.

This is a must read for everyone, if you want to progress in life beyond what you are told.

[Hang Tran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Một cuốn sách bổ ích để rèn luyện tư duy.
Tác giả đưa ra rất nhiều phương pháp cũng như bài tập đa dạng để áp dụng.

Tuy nhiên, tác giả dùng hơi nhiều từ "chuyên môn" mà mình nghĩ nếu áp dụng thực tế thì chúng ta nên "bình dân" nó để mọi người dễ hiểu hơn.
Điều cuối cùng, cuốn sách không chỉ phù hợp với con trẻ mà phù hợp với tất cả mọi đối tượng. Mình ước đã đọc nó sớm hơn :)))

[Jef · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I can see why this one has a lower rating that it should, due to being quite tactical in parts, in general this book adds great value..

It promotes and encourages creativity to solve problems, which is useful and helpful not only for kids but anyone interested in becoming a better problem solver.

Enjoyed the short and sharp paragraphs as well 😎

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Listened to audiobook.

This book is offensively bad. The author takes general well-known principles of thinking (brainstorming, cost-benefit analysis, etc.), gives them an acronym and repackages it as his own idea, presumably to sell this book and his others. Also, don't call kids youngsters. It makes you sound ridiculous.

[Anna Rawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I'm always hopeduly to learn a few new things and come in with an open mind. The audiobooks voice was the only enjoyable part that kept me pushing before calling it quits around 40%. Too much time being pretentious with analogies that are rambling on about nothing by the end.

[Ratna Anggraeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pendidikan sejatinya adalah persiapan untuk bertahan hidup

[Youssouf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't find a single citation of another author within this book...That made me really THINK...

[Filmon]

to read

[Cesar Guadarrama · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a little boy my father talked to me about lateral thinking. He was reading a book by Edward De Bono.
In one way or another, I have been heard from him at school, at home, and even at work. That's when I decided to buy this book.
If you want to get familiar with the six thinking hats method and have a summary of Edward De Bono's methods, then this book is for you. If you, however, want to start familiarizing yourself with his methods, there are probably better options out there, since this is more of a reference book.
As a side note, I read the Spanish version published by Paidos, and it is poorly translated. If you want to read it, look out for an English version.