Kids, in my opinion, are very capable of understanding once they are able to understand abstracts(Piaget's formal operational stage).
But what's holding them back, the thing that makes people think they're "dumb little kids", is a limited vocabulary.they don't know what our advanced terms, like "democracy" or "economy", mean. But if you discuss things using a simple language, or spend some time explaining all the difficult terms you're going to use, I have found little difference in the level of reflection in my class of 12-year olds and in adults.
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