Neil DeGrasse Tyson On How To Raise Intelligent Kids

Dec 25, 2018 by apost team

Do you know Neil deGrasse Tyson? He's in charge of the planetarium in New York's Museum of Natural History, and he writes books and hosts television shows about science. He's a real smart guy, and his mission in life is to get other people as excited about science as he is. So when he shares a super simple way to raise smarter children, you know it's got to be good.

He shared his secret in a recent talk he gave at an awards dinner. He said that kids are natural scientists. Kids love to explore and try out things just to see what will happen.

That's exactly what adult scientists do too. In fact, Tyson said, adult scientists are really just big kids. They never grew out of their love of exploring the world around them.

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The problem is that parents try to stop their kids. Exploring is messy. Kids may take things apart and not know how to put them back together. They may drop eggs on the floor just to see what will happen.

Parents don't want their kids to break things or to make a mess on the kitchen floor. So they say, "Stop that!" But the kids are conducting science experiments. A kid who drops an egg is really testing the material strength of the shell.

Or think of a kid who takes a bunch of pots and pans out of the cabinet and bangs them together. Most parents will say "Stop making that noise!" But the kid, Tyson said, is conducting an experiment in acoustics.

The secret, Tyson said, to raising smart kids who will be interested in science is to stop squashing their curiosity. Let kids be kids. They are already scientists! Honor their curiosity. It is more important than keeping the house quiet or the kitchen floor clean. You can always clean up the floor if your kid breaks an egg on it. But once you discourage kids from using their natural curiosity, they may never get it back.

Do you agree that kids are natural scientists? Could you let your kids drop a bunch of eggs on the floor and not want to try to stop them? Send this to other moms and dads and ask them what they think too.