Man look at the alliteration in the title. I think I used the word alliteration correctly, and I’m not really feeling like going through all the effort of typing it into Google. Yep that’s just how lazy I have become. Back in the day I would have had to get up, walk over to my book shelf and thumb through real pages to find the word. That was a lot of work but I did it and learned a ton. Now, meh not worth opening a new window and getting the answer in 0.51 seconds.
Anyways, this post isn’t about alliteration or my laziness, it is about my kids. Well not just mine, I’m also including my students in this as well.
We watched the show “Lemon-aid Mouth” with my kids the other day. One of the main characters gets in trouble because she is wearing a shirt that says “Challenge Authority” and actually follows her own advice. This led to a discussion with my wife about how we should handle that. She wasn’t too interested in the conversation because she assumed I would encourage this type of behavior and didn’t think she could convince me that I shouldn’t.
I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I don’t want to raise kids that are sheep. I don’t want rude or rebellious kids, but I want them to be passionate and follow truth, not authority. Of course a lot of the time following truth means following authority. Most laws are fair and just, they should be followed, but not all laws. If a rule needs to change for the betterment of all I want my children to know they can stand for right.
I want them to be the revolutionaries of their generation. Not in a violent way, more in the sitting in the front of the bus, standing up when everyone else sits kinda way.
I think the hard part is teaching them to express themselves in a way that promotes change but not hate. To help them find real truth and to follow that. To encourage them to challenge authority, but not be rebelious.
Is this something parents should encourage in their children or should they teach them to keep their heads down so they don’t get cut down? How would you encourage right minded protest?
Sex is Amazing
Stop complaining start a revolution
Some people always gotta swim upstream
Too many kids too small of a space
Operation Haiti
We just take opportunities to have conversations with the kids. Ask them lots of questions and help develop critical thinking skills. Questions like, “What do you think about that?” “Why do you think they made that rule/decision/etc.” “How do you think it could be better and what would be the impact of making that change?”
I don’t want kids who just sit with their heads down and continue the status quo. We should always be seeking out ways that we could be doing better both as an individual, and as a citizen. We can teach our children to question things around them, to seek truth, while still being respectful of those in authority over them. There’s always a time and place.
Yes, the challenge is to teach them to ‘speak the truth in love.’ Most Christians do not even speak.
But many of today’s Christian kids don’t have much of a foundation on which to stand. For example, biblical illiteracy is at an all time high. How many even know the Ten Commandments?
http://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/teaching-children-the-ten-commandments/
Seriously. We have been going over that with out children, not just rote recital but an understanding of what it means. I like to have them rephrase in their own words.