I couldn’t agree more!
But if we’re really talking young kids, I don’t think equipping them with the tools to recognize this shit is going to be enough. It should be done, but most adults can find a way to out-reason a ten year old even when the ten year old is speaking the truth and the adult is in the wrong.
Kids need adults to have their back, to call other adults on their bullshit. Teenagers, who remember what it’s be like to be a young child, also have a role in this if they are empowered to do so. But really, adults need to not be in positions of almost limitless power over kids. The nuclear family and the classroom are both little dictatorships where a child is completely at the mercy of one of two people and if those people decide to be horrible, there is very little the child can do about it.
Ultimately, I oppose the nuclear family and the teacher-student relationship and hope for a future where collaborative learning is the standard. Where the adults facilitating the learning process always assume that there are things they can learn from the kids and where the kids have an equal part in deciding what their learning environment should be like. Where ‘who is wrong?’ is not a question but ‘can we figure out the truth together?’ is.
Imagine being in basic control of your life, being listened to as if your voice mattered and being given a part in decision making that effects you, since the moment you start forming sentences? Imagine what not being indoctrinated into hierarchical relationships since birth would feel like?
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
origamiaround
germansingergirl
