Should reasoning skills be taught in Primary School? Why or why not?

Reasoning skills are used throughout life to help you solve and determine simple and complex situations. Reasoning skills taught in primary school would be helpful for today's youth to learn at a young age to properly solve problems with other as well as themselves. It is important especially in today’s day and age to effectively find reason to avoid conflicts and stressful situations. I believe that simple reasoning technique’s is taught to younger children, will help them develop into adults more successfully and adapt to real life more comfortably.

Reasoning can be taught to children in simple ways, all the while getting the information across without confusion. Think of using Sherlock Holms as a strategy of learning just as it was used in our class through a story. Let the children try and solve “simple” mysteries, as he did. http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/study_inexpensive_games_improve_childrens_reasoning_ability/. Preparing young learners for their future requires that teachers employ a great deal of inventiveness and creativity in designing lessons that meet the dual challenge of providing the basics and developing the ability to reason. Young children are just as susceptible to learn as adults, you just need to take it to a level that is fun and simple to understand. Most young children enjoy school, so why not educate them while school is “fun”?

The issue of decision making becomes increasingly important during adolescence because teens are developing greater autonomy and encountering more choices independent of adults. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that youth development programs are successful in promoting positive behavior and preventing problem behavior when these programs help young people learn decision making skills. http://www.health.state.ny.us/community/youth/development/docs/jphmp_s088-s094.pdf. So why not start teaching our children reasoning skills early on to help them avoid negative situations in the future?

While individuals like myself find teaching children reasoning skills to be helpful, others find that young children do not have the mental capacity to understand reasoning. Even if reasoning skills are taught to a child, executing those skills properly would be slim. Children have a short attention span and would not fully comprehend what they were being taught. Taking a short survey outside of the Granite Mountain Elementary School, 8 out of 10 Parents and Faculty believe this to be true.

Reasoning is a part of everyday life. The advantages of our children would have of grasping this concept would be incredible. Being able to understand a particular subject always takes time but why not give our children the benefit of the doubt and let them be exposed to reasoning skills. Regardless of what results are achieved, they will have established a foundation to work from. This foundation should be maintained within schools to provide children with the necessary reasoning skills to succeed as they become adults.