Petruchio

As a teacher, I wonder if it is possible to instill this skill into students the skills of rationality and critical thinking. I teach the third grade, and it is not immediately apparent how to apply this with my own class. The problems I foresee are as follows: * Young children often do not know the basics on the subject which they are learning, be it math, science, art, religion, literature etc. * Many children are very shy, and try to give as short of an answer as doable to a verbal prompt. * Written prompts are arduous, straining the attention span and writing capabilities of the students. This is not a bad thing, but it presents difficulties in the economy of time and material to be presented. * Attention spans in general are very short. * Experiments can be very infrequent, and nigh impossible with certain subjects. * Children, at this age, are likely to take the words of a parent or teacher at face value, and naturally parrot it back. This may be a hard habit to break. In the sequences, it is suggested teachers should drill into students words don't count, only anticipation-controllers. How practical is this for an elementary school level? Also appreciated would be any ideas or experiences on how to do this, or how to combat the above problems. Hearing from other teachers would be excellent especially.