THINKING "OUT OF THE BOX"

Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant's debt if he could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal.The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender's wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant's garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

CASE STUDY:

What would you have done if you were the girl?

If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat.

3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking.

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. "Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked." Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an Impossible situation into an advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Most complex problems do have a solution, sometimes we have to think about them in a different way. Winners don’t do different things. They do things differently.

We shall see how Logical thinking is different from Lateral thinking in the following paragraphs.
What is logic?
We can see a few examples.
Gold will Glitter. But all that Glitters is not gold.
Milk is white in colour but all that is White is not Milk.

What is Logical thinking? It is thinking “Out of the Box”. It helps Children to become ‘Smarter’. Logical thinking is an important foundation skill. Unfortunately its role in learning is grossly underestimated and its role in overcoming learning difficulties is neglected. Logical thinking is the process in which one uses reasoning consistently to come to a conclusion. Problems or situations that involve logical thinking call for structure, for relationships between facts, and for chains of reasoning that “make sense”.

Logical thinking is a very important skill that must be taught. Logical thinking is thinking in terms of causes and consequences, which in turn means that it is sequential thinking. Logical thinking means following a train of thought. It is like looking into and predicting the future: If this happens, then what will happen. However this has nothing to do with fortune telling. It is based on the interpretation of certain prevalent conditions and then predicting what will happen if the conditions continue to prevail.

Logical thinking is in a way the opposite of short term memory. Short-term memory is the skill that enables one to keep track of the immediate past. Logical thinking allows one to keep track of the immediate future. The two skills are closely connected. The person who has a poor short-term memory will therefore naturally have a weak ability to think logically because the one leads to another.

The ability to think logically is of immense importance in our daily lives. Day after day, from moment to moment, we are busy interpreting available evidence and making predictions on what will happen next.

Logical thinking is not only of great importance in our everyday lives, but also a skill that is indispensable for children in school. Very little of what happens in any learning situation is not dependant on logical thinking. It is therefore of the utmost importance that parents should as early in life as possible teach their children this very important skill.

Lateral thinking is specifically concerned with changing preconceived notions to bring out new ideas and can be acquired and practised as a skill. It is a special information handling process like Mathematics, logical analysis or computer simulation. Thinking techniques once mastered, can be used both individually and in a group, dispensing with brainstorming. Here unconventionality clearly comes to the fore.

Lateral thinking can save your life as illustrated in this story. Two men were on a jungle safari in Africa. Suddenly, they came across a tiger that started roaring. Both men were frightened and one of them started wearing his shoes. The other one said: How is this going to help?” We can’t outrun the tiger. The first man replied: “I don’t have to outrun the tiger; I only have to outrun you”.

Let all of us start teaching our children on Logical thinking right from their formative years. In this way we will reap benefits as the child grows up thinking “out of the box”.

Be Blissful.
S.SEKAR
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com
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