Use Your Head: Four Key Questions

Being “wise as serpents” regarding the media involves developing the habit of critical thinking. As educator Vincent Ruggiero explains, “This does not mean approaching every idea as false until proven true. It means being neither skeptical nor approving until all reasonable questions about the idea have been answered.”

By: Alan Schreck

Here are some questions you can fruitfully apply as you watch and read. Try using them for your own reflection and as a teaching tool with your kids.

1. What type of movie, book, or TV show is it? Teach your children that this is the first question to ask, because different genres require different responses. Is it fiction or nonfiction? Is it history? A historical novel (based on a historical event but with fictional development)? A totally “mythic” history, like The Lord of the Rings?

Movies and books like The Da Vinci Code are deceptive because they incorporate names of real figures, groups, and things into a work of pure fiction. The references to Jesus, Opus Dei, and Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper make the story seem credible. In fact, it is not history or even a historical novel, but simply a fictitious tale whose “facts” are easily debunked.

2. What point, message, or agenda is being promoted? The second thing to determine…

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