This post will cover the importance of obedience and why it is demonized among the educational elite. It amazes me that such a divide exists between the philosophy of the educational elite and the philosophy of most American parents. What amazes me even more is that this divide rarely gets any discussion. The educational elite hold the status of gods, and anyone who dares defy them feels the full force of their wrath. What the educational elite say is accepted without question as being right and true even though it contradicts the core values of a majority of Americans. No where does this hold more true than when it comes to the topic of obedience.
The Average Parent's Stance on Obedience
If you were to ask the average American parent about the importance of obedience in children, a majority of them would say that it is very important for children to learn to obey. If you were to ask a member of the educational elite, early childhood professional, etc. that same question, they would give you a long speech on how demeaning it is to a child to expect him/her to obey an adult. I see a major difference of opinion here. Yet only one opinion ever gets portrayed in the media, and it's not the parents. When my own children were small, I had a huge problem with this. I felt like these people treated me like some ignorant cow that only functioned off of savage instincts where my children were concerned. If I did not hold their beliefs and opinions, I had to be uneducated and simple. To them, no educated person would ever think of holding conservative beliefs. As a highly, educated conservative, I still take offense at this.
The Educational Elite's Stance on Obedience
What exactly is the stance of the educational elite, early childhood field, etc. on the subject of obedience? They see an adult imposing anything on a child as a violation of that child's choice. The experts will tell you it is disrespectful to the child to force them to do something. It is inappropriate to impose a set of standards on a child. To lead that child to decide to choose the appropriate option is fine, but to simply expect that child to obey an adult without question is dehumanizing for that child. For them, a situation does not exist that would call for a child to blindly obey an adult. All situations can be managed in such a way that the child chooses the appropriate option of his/her own free will.
What Is Wrong with That?
As a parent, I can think of millions of situations that call for immediate obedience and many of them are life and death situations. One of my greatest fears as a young mother was that I would find my family in one of those situations and my child would decide in that moment to disobey me costing my child his/her life. It is completely ludicrous to assert that every circumstance that calls for complete and immediate obedience can be avoided through planning and supervision. I am an avid student of history and understand that just because our society enjoys peace at the moment does not mean that we cannot be plunged into chaos overnight. How in the world do you plan for a situation like the one the Jews of Germany found themselves in during the 1930s? Many times those families had to hide, and a child that could not be made to be quiet cost everybody their life. I am sure that the Jews of Germany in the 1920s had no idea that 10 years later they would be having to hide in peoples' attics. If American families found themselves in similar circumstances in 10 years, not many of them would survive because our children will not obey for anything. At least the Jews of the 1930s valued obedience. America does not.
The Track Record of the Millenials
Is obedience really that big a deal? Isn't it better if the child chooses of his/her own free will? On the surface having a child choose of his/her own free will sounds like the better option. It should help that child to be decisive and learn to make good decisions. However, we have a generation of children that have been brought up with this philosophy to some degree. These children are now between the ages of 15 and 25 to 30. Can you honestly look at this generation and say that they are decisive and make good decisions? Have they become strong productive adults when compared to previous generations? How many media reports have you heard lately about how this particular age group seems to be much more immature than previous generations? It is quite often. The long-term effects of the "choice" movement have been disastrous and that is putting it nicely. What scares me is that the next generation has been raised by a much truer form of the "choice" movement. I have already written a post about how the level of immaturity seems to be getting worse with every subsequent year. This problem may get out of hand before America finally realizes that obedience just might be an important skill to instill in children.
Obedience and the Prefrontal Cortex
Before I leave this subject I want to touch on one more area. Many times being obedient is portrayed as a mindless act. When the educational elite talk about choices, they do not regard obedience as a form of choice. Is obedience a mindless act that children do without any thought process? That is laughable. When a child obeys, most of the time that child has to choose to do what he/she is supposed to do over what they want to do. That takes inhibitory control. Inhibitory control comes from the prefrontal cortex of the brain. The brain research coming out in the last 5 years has been screaming about the importance of the prefrontal cortex when it comes to children doing well in school. There has also been much discussion about how the prefrontal cortex of children 15 to 25 seems to be more immature than previous generations. I don't think it requires a degree in rocket science to put 2 and 2 together in this situation. Obedience has been progressively more demonized since the late 1980s. That has coincided with a huge upsurge in immaturity all around and in children's prefrontal cortex development. That is no coincidence. We must begin to put obedience before choice before we do any more damage to another generation of children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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