Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you

with your most important job being a dad. These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy,

by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Teach them to think and evaluate.

Plutarch tells us the story of a Spartan leader.

As he reclined after his meal,

the Aaron would tell one boy to sing, while to another he would pose a question which called for a considered reply, like who among the men is best, or what is your opinion of so-and-so's action?

Thereby, boys grew accustomed to judging excellence and to making critical appraisal of the

citizens right from the start.

When asked which citizen was good or whose reputation was low, the boy who proved to be

at a loss for words was regarded as a sluggard whose mind showed no sign of any ambition

to excel.

Answers had to be reasoned, supported by argument,

and at the same time expressed with brevity and conciseness. It is this that we must create

in our own home, because they are definitely not going to be getting it at school. Our goal is to

raise kids who know how to think, who can see. It's not that you

want to teach them to be judgmental, but you do want them to have good judgment. And how does

anyone develop a skill without practice? One of the benefits of watching sports as a family is an

opportunity to judge this way, to evaluate. You can talk about what players are doing right and wrong. You can debate

whether a coach made a mistake going for it on fourth down. You can talk about why your hometown franchise

is so consistently mediocre. You can't let them get away with half-baked analysis either, nor can you

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