Critical Thinking Common Parenting Situations

Common Parenting Situations Assignment

Below is a list of situations that parents work through every day. Resolve these problems using a particular parenting style, such as authoritarian, permissive-indulgent, authoritative. You have to use each parenting style at least once. Each style would handle the situation differently.

 

•       Your 9-year-old and your 11-year-old want to play PlayStation games all the time.

      Parenting style:

      What would you do?

 

•       The fifth-grade math teacher sends a note home saying that your child rarely does his homework and is easily distracted in class.

            Parenting style:

            What would you do?

 

•       Your 10-year-old daughter wants to know why you won’t let her wear makeup, hip-hugging jeans, crop tops, and earrings. She says all her friends do.

      Parenting style:

      What would you do?

 

•       You find out that your sixth grader has removed a couple of cans of beer from your refrigerator.

                  Parenting style:

                  What would you do?

 

•       Your third grader and peers seem to delight in sprinkling their conversation with an assortment of swearwords.

      Parenting style:

      What would you do?

 

•       Your fourth grader starts to insist that she will wear only certain expensive brands of jeans, shoes, and tops, and they are so expensive that your budget could not afford much.

      Parenting style:

      What would you do?

 

•       Your second grader insists he doesn’t need a baby-sitter anymore.

      Parenting style:

      What would you do?

 

•       Your sixth grader thinks she is old enough to date and is interested in a ninth-grade guy.

Parenting style:

What would you do?

Parenting for Critical Thinking

Parents should equip their children to acquire, develop, and practice intellectual virtue, because this is a necessary (but not sufficient) requirement for true human flourishing. But what is intellectual virtue? An intellectual virtue is an excellence of the mind. It is an intellectual character trait that enables one to reason well for the purpose of living well.

Some examples of intellectual virtues include attentiveness, prudence, teachability, intellectual tenacity, intellectual humility, love of truth, and wisdom. It does not matter whether one becomes a college professor, computer technician, artist, or electrician. Simply by virtue of being human, we live more fulfilled lives and can perform our jobs better if we possess the intellectual virtues and apply their fruit to our lives.

Seeking to develop intellectual virtue in our children is also important as a safeguard against some of the ways in which our culture seeks to influence people.

Several years ago, a PBS program detailed an advertising strategy called emotional branding. The strategy is “to fill the empty places where noncommercial institutions, like schools and churches, might once have done the job. Brands become more than just a mark of quality, they become an invitation to a longed-for lifestyle, a ready-made identity.” This program points out that those who are brand managers talk as if they truly are fulfilling the needs people have for meaning, community, and even transcendence. Of course, in the end, it’s only an iPhone, a car, or a pair of shoes. But this works out for the companies, because people have to go shopping again in the attempt to get these needs met.

This is related to intellectual virtue, because in emotional branding the advertiser tries to bypass the rational mind and tap into these longings we possess. They want us to associate these longings with their products or services, and they seek to accomplish this by their marketing and advertising. The intellectually virtuous person will recognize that the kind of car one drives is unrelated to finding meaningful relationships with other people.

We need to teach our children to be careful, critical thinkers, for not only advertisers but also politicians, pastors, and others may use the same methods of persuasion. One of the best safe-guards in these contexts is a sound mind…

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.