Loudon: Teaching Children How to Think

When I look around at the United States I wonder where did the United States go wrong? What brought us to this terrible state where we have two divisions of government (two separate philosophies) and two separate paths of thinking? Why is it that we have so much corruption, greed, power, money laundering, and forced control.? Why is our government going down the slippery, slimy path of deception and destruction?

Your answer may be different than mine, but I think we both will agree that somewhere in the past, it started with the division and diversion in people’s education, and professional ethics – and their inability to THINK!

The LACK of thinking, reading, and knowledge that people have gathered and learned concerning and about our government and politicians has taken the U.S. down the path toward socialism and communism. Many politician’s lies are very frequent. The majority of people in the United States have a lack of information and knowledge about the objectives of many of these politicians.

Every person’s thinking, education, and effort leads them to their personal, professional, and ethical goals in life. HONEST thinking and education decide the honor roll for us versus the greed, power, corruption, and control of the professional roles played by many of our government politicians. LACK of knowledgeable thinking, honest nonbias teaching, and lack of honest constitutional education is leading us to the downfall of America.

America has been known as a country that a child can have the greatest opportunity for success in the world. Many people go from nothing to great success in businesses, teaching at Universities, plus finding new ideas, professions, procedures, and innovations without government interference. We used to call this capitalism and free enterprise. It is getting harder and harder to do that, but learning to think and be able to create new ideas, innovations, procedures, and inventions is the only way that we can overcome these deficiencies.

America is still the land of opportunity. When we have a breakdown in 1, our family 2, our obligations and academic knowledge, and 3, the breakdown of professional ethics, we have a breakdown of our society. The state of our government and laws in America have resulted from a breakdown in these three areas.

Today we discuss one of these areas… That is teaching children how to think. That also involves teaching children to be honest, trustworthy, and be able to have the ability to think freely. Socialism, communism, and stifling the first amendment is not a path to free thinking, free speech, liberty, and self-thinking of ideas, and innovations. I hope that we never come to that.

What are some of the things that help teach children to think? This is extremely important in our free enterprise system and the future of the nation. Thinking is also very important in starting a child’s journey through life. However, it is only one of the factors that determine his place and honest goals in our society.

The art of discipline and thinking needs to be taught to children, the same as you learn to play baseball, ski, or play checkers. There are several skills that parents can teach their children to begin their thinking education. Earnst Dimnet, in his great book, “The Art of Thinking,” sums up the importance of thinking. He said, “A thinker is a person who cares in places where others do not.”

There are many tools that can be used to teach children to think. I will mention some today, but there are many other ways that parents should teach their children the art of thinking. Some of my thoughts include…

1. When your child asks a question, Ask your child to think of the answer. You might say, “what do you think about this?” or, “think about your question and see how many answers you can think of,” or “what do you think it might be”? Having them learn to ask and answer questions in their minds, stimulates their thinking, and creates a structured way for them to think about their questions before they ask questions.

2. Teach and have your child read books as often as possible. Dr. Ben Carson, a famous brain surgeon, who was named to President Trump’s cabinet, is most well known for separating con-joining twins, said this. “My mother made my brother and I read books all of the time. She gave us mostly educational books that involved true events, motivation, and thinking. I read many, many books before I went to high school and college. It also gave me the information needed that gave me the inspiration to be a head and brain surgeon.” He contributes a lot to his learning, thinking ability, and education to reading those books.

3. Keep your child busy doing thinking games, puzzles, and reading about successful people. Did you know that most famous scientists and successful people are avid readers? DaVinci, Elon Musk, Edison, Telsa, Henry Ford, Einstein, the Wright brothers, plus many more great scholars, scientists, and billionaires were all avid readers and learned everything they could about their professions, innovations, and businesses.

4. Teach your child to use technology. The new world is about technology. The information explosion is bringing us new ideas, and information that we wouldn’t even dream of 5 years ago. More information is available now in one day than was available in a year during the 1600s. Information on the computer is still following Moores’s law. It doubles every two years. For children in our competitive world, it is very essential to teach them or have them taught how to retrieve and use this information. Information will bring incredible opportunities in the next few years that make it imperative for children to learn all they can about computers, cell phones, and other ways of communication.

5. Teach children the eight rules of cognitive thinking. Did you know that 80 to 90 percent of all ideas came about from questions in a person’s mind. Most scientists who have made great discoveries have used only five words (in their mind for questions) to begin their search for information. Surprisingly, there are only 5 starting words (below) that comprise 80 percent of these questions. That is why it is so extremely important for children to learn these five words below for thinking of questions in their minds. This creates a questioning and learning mind.

Einstein had to ask in his mind, “What influence does gravity have on light waves?” “How do I test to prove that light waves bend?” “How can I prove that energy equals mass times velocity squared?” Thomas Edison had to ask in his mind, “What substance can I use to provide enough resistance (without burning up) to create light?”

The eight rules of cognitive thinking can be used in every person’s mind. What a great advantage it is to be able to memorize and use them every day to solve a person’s problems, create ideas, plan, find innovations, procedures, and inventions.

Ask questions in your mind to solve problems and create ideas. Begin your mind questions with

1. What?

2. When?

4. where?

5. How? and…

6. Why?

The seventh rule is called the TOFE rule.

7. There are usually at least 10 OPTIONS FOR EVERYTHING, (TOFE). When you should think of it, many other ways can be used for what you are trying to do. Think of as many ways as you can, then use the best one. The eighth rule involves your brain health.

8.keep your body and brain healthy.” This means that you need a raw, fresh, electromagnetic diet and a great immune system to main excellent brain health.

Please remember; The children that achieve to become all that they can be, and the children that invest their time to become it, usually reach their goals in life. More important than that, all people who invest themselves in helping others become god’s helpers and are involved in the most important work man can do.

These are surely not the plans and goals related to many people in our government who control the future of the United States. Somewhere, their goals and plans got screwed up. When and where did it start? In their home. In the schools that they attended. Professionally, or when power, greed, money, and control became their obsession? I’m sure they will never tell us.

February 14, 2021

~ the Author ~
Merle E. Loudon, B.S., D.D.S. graduated from the University Of Washington School Of Dentistry in 1957. After two years of service in the Air Force, he started a private practice in East Wenatchee, Washington. For the past 45 years his practice has included Orthodontics and TM Dysfunction treatment specializing in temporomandibular pain treatment, headache, head and neck pain control, functional jaw orthopedics, and straight wire orthodontics. Associated with mercury elimination, oral surgery, crowns and bridges is TMJ treatment, diet control, parasite elimination, intestinal cleansing and healing (wellness).

Merle E. Loudon, B.S., D.D.S. has taught advanced courses for dentists on TM Dysfunction treatment, orthodontics and related pain control for more than 30 years. In 1972 he was the first dentist in Washington to use straight wire orthodontics and the first dentist to correct vertical deficiencies in children by placing vertical dimension-primary molar buildups and/or vertical (erupting) appliances. Merle E. Loudon, B.S., D.D.S. was involved with the first group of dentists to recognize lateral tongue splinting in young infants and integrate functional and fixed techniques to correct vertical dimension deficiencies and condylar placement. He is the originator of vertical dimension-primary molar build ups, which help to correct deep bites and Otitus media in children. He invented the Loudon-Chateau Anterior Repositioning Appliance, the functional muscle malocclusion concept, the twelve commandments of occlusion and the vertical overbite domino rule. Merle E. Loudon, B.S., D.D.S. has written numerous articles in several American and foreign dental journals and has lectured in over 50 cities and 7 foreign countries on functional jaw orthopedics, fixed wire orthodontics, Otitus media treatment and TM Dysfunction treatment. He has been instrumental in setting up criteria for teaching in the International Association For Orthodontics, including the certified instructor program.

Dr. Loudon is a member of The American Dental Association, Diplomat and Senior Instructor in the International Association for Orthodontics, and is a Diplomat of the American Academy of Pain Management. He also is a member of the American Orthodontic Society.

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