Product Description

By teaching their children the skills presented in this program, parents can ensure their future success. Dr. Edward de Bono lays out a step-by-step plan that will help children develop clear and constructive thinking, based on a method that makes thinking fun.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15023 in Books
• Published on: 1994-07-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Some parents may be confused by this busy primer, while others will agree with the author's premise that creative thinking skills can be directly taught. De Bono, a business and educational consultant, asserts that this manual is equally applicable to teaching children or senior executives. Crammed with exercises, games and diagrams, the book stresses that thinking involves "operacy"--the skills of doing or making things happen--as well as devising mental patterns more effective than the mind's routine habits. De Bono ( I Am Right You Are Wrong ) takes a no-nonsense approach, pointing out that much thinking is inefficient and that many highly intelligent people are not good thinkers. He urges the use of speculation, hypotheses, provocation and other techniques as a way to get out of mental ruts and generate ideas.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Covering a highly intellectual topic, the philosophy and psychology of thinking, this audiobook is geared towards adults and older children. A longtime veteran in the field, de Bono gives listeners exercises to expand their thinking capacity. Zimbalist's reading is appropriately unemotional and flat. He does the best he can with dry subject matter, but the listener will find it difficult to stay engaged. Dry material plus a droning reading make it too easy to tune out. A.G.H. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Creative thinking for parents and kids
Teach Your Child How to Think
Most young kids are creative but disorganized thinkers. This book is parents' book to guide the child to think creatively and at the same time be well organized, also as a member of a group of people. The book is good summary of several de Bono's thinking methods and guide how to transfer these skills to other people. De Bono is outside of the envelope, his methods are widely used and work well, but do not form any established academic model. Some people consider de Bono non-scientific, because he mostly refers his own work and not that much other learned papers. In spite of not being a psychologist, I see many connections between his work and cognitive psychology and social dynamics. My opinion is, that this book suits as a summary of de Bono's methods, practical guide for parents informally teaching a small group of children, and maybe as a teachers' book for collaborative work from five year olds up to university level, with additional material to suit the students. Please remember, there is no fast track to creative thinking, it takes time.
(The reviewer holds B.Sc in science and M.Sc in software engineering)

If you have a child, are pregnant, or never learned to think...
This book should leave the hospital along with your newborn. It is for parents, for children and for anyone who wants to blaze a few more synapses pathways. I strongly recommend this book. A large part of what is going so wrong with our beloved country, lately, is that we have neglected the science of teaching thinking skills. We can get back on track, one child at a time. Get this book today. It will open your mind, create a better future and immerse you in possibilities.

Worthwhile as a practical guide
This is a how-to manual on thinking. The main emphasis is on habits of a good thinker, such as focus and purpose, and specific thinking tools, such as the "Plus, Minus and Interesting" technique. The book enumerates many specific methods of effective thinking and suggests exercises to practice each of them.

First some Critical Thinking (a valid, but inferior activity, according to the author). In spite of the cerebral subject, some statements sound decidedly lowbrow. Intellectualism is put down as an overly complex and non-creative activity. For a purportedly successful methodology that has been around for 20 years (at the time of the book's publishing), the absence of scientific proof that the theory works is surprising: only one study with a concrete result is mentioned. One stumbles over some inconsistencies: on p. 11 critical thinking is said not to have high value in today's society, but on the next page it is claimed to be important. Terms such as "mathematical necessity of creativity" betray the author's careless use of language ("mathematical" is out of place here).

The title is vague. 30 pages into the book one learns that the methods presented are generally applicable to children older than 9. This information should have been present in the cover notes or in the editorial reviews. The boy on the book's cover looks like a 5-year-old. The section on which methods to teach at which age should be in the back, since the special terms and abbreviations, mentioned before they are explained, do not make sense. The cover note claim that the book helps kids "to make today's life-and-death choices" seems rather heavy-handed.

The author does not suffer from modesty: "unlike many people in this field, Dr. de Bono is an original thinker". The book is rather dry, and it is especially unfortunate since the author would like children to be among the readers.

Developing educational tools for thinking echoes works of other writers (Rita Levi Montalcini, a 1986 Nobel winner in medicine, is one). Still, the author does not refer to anybody else's research on the topic, nor is there a list of literature.

The main strengths of the book are its practicality and optimism. The tools are simple to use and the exercises on each technique are engaging. Refreshing is the belief that everybody can be taught to become a thinker.

By far the most interesting and original part of the book is on teaching creativity by means of provocation and Random Word technique. Both tools are designed to bring one to a dramatically new view on the problem and to a solution that may be called "creative". Other techniques, such as "Consider All Factors" or "Outcome and Conclusion", might seem self-evident, but practicing them with children seems a worthwhile exercise.

To summarize, most shortcomings of the book seem overall insignificant, whereas the core is healthy. I would recommend the book to those who are prepared to practice or teach thinking techniques.