Speaking of Teens
Episode #38: Teaching Teens To Respect Authority Is Dangerous
There’s never a shortage of news stories about someone in a position of power or authority who has physically, emotionally, or sexually abused a child or an adolescent in their care. We’ve seen it in schools, churches, sports organizations - anywhere adults are in charge of young people.
And for all the high-profile cases, there are thousands more that perhaps involve fewer kids or a not-so-famous organization and still more than go unreported.
When one of these stories come to light, our questions are always the same. How did this happen? Why did these kids not say something? Why didn’t they tell someone? Why didn’t they ask their parents for help?
I believe the answer’s pretty simple: it’s because we’ve taught our kids to keep their mouths shut. We’ve taught them to “respect authority”, to “obey their elders”, to “not talk back”, to “do what they’re told”...and by doing so, we’ve put them at great risk for harm.
Join me this week as I examine how we can change the narrative with our kids about “respecting authority” to do a better job of keeping them safe from predatory and abusive adults in positions of power or trust.
Access TRANSCRIPT here.
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Sources, Resources and Mentions:
Netflix Documentary, Don't Pick Up The Phone
About Stanley Milgram's experiments:
TheConversation.com (discussion of the additional experiments and new findings)
Stanley Milgram's documentary (1962)
The Experimenter (2016 movie starring Peter Sarsgaard) about the Milgram experiments
The video by teacher/principal(?) of an elementary school
A sampling of the cases of abuse of authority in religious institutions:
Christian Schools
Other Cases Across Organizations:
Rosalind Wiseman on Good Life Project Podcast
Essay by Amy Sterling Casil (Grandfather was a Sheriff)
Essay By "Teacher Tom" (teaching young kids to question authority)
Ira Chaleff (Intelligent Disobedience)
Parents not believing girls about Larry Nassar:
Abusers working in "positions of trust":