Harris, Paul L. Trusting What You're Told How Children Learn
from Others Aims and Scope If children were little scientists
who learn best through firsthand observations and mini-
experiments, as conventional wisdom holds, how would a child
discover that the earth is round—never mind conceive of heaven
as a place someone might go after death? Overturning both
cognitive and commonplace theories about how children learn,
Trusting What You’re Told begins by reminding us of a basic
truth: Most of what we know we learned from others. Children
recognize early on that other people are an excellent source of
information. And so they ask questions. But youngsters are also
remarkably discriminating as they weigh the responses they
elicit. And how much they trust what they are told has a lot to
do with their assessment of its source. Trusting What You’re
Told opens a window into the moral reasoning of elementary
school vegetarians, the preschooler’s ability to distinguish
historical narrative from fiction, and the six-yea