Solidarity with children is often neglected or even made a joke of, so I wanna take a second and tell y'all what I wish I could go back in time and tell myself:
You're right. School is bullshit, homework is bullshit, waking up early is bullshit, going to bed early is bullshit. Some adults are just pointlessly cruel, even those in positions of authority over you. Sometimes adults are wrong, and, in fact, sometimes you are right
You were born with an innate sense of justice and fairness and adults have spent your entire life trying to beat it out of you so you'll shut up and do what you're told in an unjust and unfair society. Don't let them. Many of us have to take effort to relearn the wisdom you have right now, the ability to tell when something is bullshit even if you can't articulate why yet
You deserve happiness, fulfillment, and liberation just as much as any adult. Those first 18 years are just as important as any other time in your life, and it's time you'll never get back. Don't let anyone take them from you just because you're too young to fight back
Question everything, and never take "that's just the way it is" as an answer. Sometimes when things don't make sense to you it's because they just don't make any goddamn sense
Pick your battles, and be strategic. Don't take this post as permission to go starting fights for no reason. But remember that you have worth, and our society tends to not respect that. And you're right: that is bullshit
(also, read Anarchy Works)
also also, read The Teenage Liberation Handbook
Haven’t read it myself, but if it interests you then you can read it here for free in case paying for a book online and having it shipped to your house isn’t an option for you
Also check out No! Against Adult Supremacy
Reblogging so I can find these book recs later.
My youngest son (16) struggles because he is not really suited to school as it exists. He’s literally brilliant but also inflexible and doesn’t work well when he has no control over his own day. He and I have just been trying to get through this for 11 years now. Next year he’s in a vocational program for game design, hopefully, which will cut back on a lot of the things he truly can’t stand:
- why is getting changed in front of everybody for gym class a thing?
- why do I have to sit through the same material in health class multiple times? (he is ace and sex-repulsed)
- why is this teacher angry with me? I don’t understand Google classroom.
- why does everyone keep asking me about my college plans? do they think I’m going through this one minute longer than I have to? fuck all the way off!
He has autism, ADHD, and a rampant anxiety disorder as a result of his first two disorders. Right now we are both enjoying his spring break, then it’s back to pushing through the best we can day after day until mid-June. And we are both really frank with each other about just getting through this.
If my parents had just earnestly told me "hey, we know this sucks, but there's not much we can do about it so we just have to push through it together" then my school experience as an autistic kid would've been so much more bearable
Part of what motivated me writing this post was finding out as an adult that my parents hated several of my teachers and disagreed with their decisions but didn't tell me at the time, so I wound up blaming myself. Just being told at the time "you're right, this is unfair, and we're on your side" would've made me feel so much less alone, even if the end result wasn't any different
