Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Fallacy Detective, a review

When the lovely people at Trivium Pursuit asked if I would be willing to read and write a review of the third edition of The Fallacy Detective, I was happy to do so. I will admit up front to enjoying their materials as a homeschool mom (now emeritus). :)

However, I'd never read The Fallacy Detective before and I'm sorry I didn't use it in our homeschooling curriculum. What a great book for learning logic and critical thinking. While homeschooling, I taught a class at our co-op in "Worldview and Literature" where I (hopefully) led the students to realize all writing is done from a particular worldview and to realize how all our media influences our thinking.

That is one of the reasons this book would be well worth using in your homeschool, your co-op, or even with non-homeschooling families who enjoy discussing such subjects. I read a little of it here and there to Christopher, who said it reminded him of the important subjects he learned in debate at the co-op. This is the perfect book for use in co-op debate and/or critical thinking classes!

Having one child graduate from the University and another going through right now... I can't emphasize enough how important it is for young people to be able to stand firm in their beliefs in today's culture. Not only that, but to communicate their beliefs, challenging wrong teaching, and having the ability to reach the culture with good skills.

The Fallacy Detective is full of stories and cartoons to make (what could be) a challenging subject easy and fun to learn for younger students (age twelve and above) but it is "deep" enough to be used by high school and adult students. It is one of those books that you can use over and over again with multiple age students.

For more specific information, go to the Trivium Pursuit website... here.

The Fallacy Detective also has a website... here.

Highly recommended!

2 comments:

hmsclmom said...

We used the second edition of this book when we were homeschooling. I used it at our co-op and the kids and adults alike enjoyed it! Great way to introduce logic...my kids (who are now adults)still will point out a "red herring" every now and then. ;)


Blessings,
Debbie

Christina said...

I used this book on my own in junior high and now Mom is going through it with Raymond & Rebecca. I really enjoyed it! It was definitely beneficial. :)