Discussion Question Obedience

Assignment 1: Discussion Question: Obedience

The ways in which adults choose to socialize their children, in today’s society, from a personal perspective, is no longer a reflection of trusting authority without question. I would argue that this approach, and question even, is outdated and more parents are raising their children to trust and obey authority figures to a certain extent. Teaching children to trust authority without question can sometimes have devastating results, as was seen in the McDonald’s prank call scenario. There are countless cases of ‘police officers’ abusing authority to take advantage of people, teachers sexually violating students, and other authority figures using their roles of ‘authority’ to disrespect and take advantage of people. THIS is what is being taught in today’s society during child rearing processes.

Although there are several cases where children blindly following authority has resulted in tragedy, this is not always going to be the case. There are some benefits to children blindly following authority. For example, children that are unable to recognize the presence of danger, where an adult might be, will listen and follow the directions of the adult which might very well protect that child. Also, children that follow authority are able to see how things should and should not be done which helps them to develop social skills that will be necessary as they grow. The negative consequences that can come from this would be a child following the wrong examples and learning socially unacceptable behaviors. For example, children that live in a home where the mom or dad is abusing drugs and/or alcohol or is violent, the child will learn these behaviors and if not corrected, will make these behaviors a part of their adult life.

A better way to socialize children would be to speak and treat them like growing adults rather than helpless children. Children are growing up much faster in today’s society than they did in the past and in response to such, socialization processes should accurately reflect this. I would argue that one of the biggest mistakes that parents make is thinking that their children don’t understand what is happening in the world around them.

References

ABC News (No Date). Restaurant shift turn to nightmare. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1297922&page=1