How do you best go about helping a child learn disobedience? There is mounting evidence that the orders we receive aren’t in our best interest any more, so surely one of the best skills we can learn is how to misbehave effectively.
My little daughter is expected to do a pile of homework, because it is required of her to read aged 5, so that she can pass the tests that they start to give in autumn, so that she can keep passing the other tests that lead up to her A-levels, so she can go on and get into university.
Trouble is, a university degree no longer helps a young person quite so much in getting a Good Job, and will probably be many times less useful in 20 years.
Too many workers and not enough work…
…this doesn’t support the idea of being a good little worker and following other people’s orders.
And on the other side of the equation:
A dad who tells his daughter to study because it is required of her. A company that forces its people to observe its rigid operating procedure. A controlling society that has created an army of dependants it cannot carry any more…
…this doesn’t support the idea of authority figures giving other people orders.
It seems to me that this dad somehow needs to help his daughter learn the art of constructive misbehaviour if he’s going to be of any service to her future. Help her nurture her own fiery spark rather than light a fire under her arse. The skill of obediently following instructions doesn’t seem so valuable any more. There appears to be a robot graveyard at the end of the traditional academic treadmill.
A healthy dose of misbehaviour could be fun, as well as life saving. This weekend I convinced her to smash up her Lego horse stable and hide the instructions in the wardrobe. It was difficult at first (for both of us), almost a wrench. But from the rubble she soon produced an excellent wonky spaceship.
By Sunday evening we’d had some seriously amazing adventures.
