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The Right To Leave - by Dr Naomi Fisher - Think Again

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The right to opt out isn’t one we value when it comes to young people. We value joining in, being there, showing up - and we denigrate saying No, refusing, saying you’ve had enough, or deciding that something isn’t for you. Thanks for reading Think Again! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Many of us fear that it if we allow young people to say no, they always will. We think that maybe children (and particularly teenagers) are naturally lazy and not interested in learning - and so it’s safer to remove choices from them. Safer to make their childhood a series of things that they are obliged to do. We build our whole school system on this premise - it’s just too important to allow them choice. We imagine terrible catastrophes if they were allowed to make decisions we disagree with. Maybe they’d never learn to read! We turn these obligations into moral judgements. ‘It’s rude to be late’ we tell them, even though they have had no choice at all as to whether to b

Illustration, Eliza Fricker (www.missingthemark..blog) The right to opt out isn’t one we value when it comes to young people. We value joining in, being there, showing up - and we denigrate saying No, refusing, saying you’ve had enough, or deciding that something isn’t for you. Many of us fear that it if we allow young people to say no, they always will. We think that maybe children (and particularly teenagers) are naturally lazy and not interested in learning - and so it’s safer to remove choices from them. Safer to make their childhood a series of things that they are obliged to do. We…

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