A book review of A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All by Adam Benforado.
If you ask most young people about the world today you might hear them say that things are unfair. They might mean very different things when they say that such as the environment is in danger and schools are uneven. Their ability to have choices and freedom is challenged. And they are dying in school shootings. Is there anything that adults can do to help them survive?
The idea of adultism is reaching a level of popular understanding. What is that? According to Fletcher it is the overwhelming and overpowering role that adults play in their relationship to young people. It is the belief that adults think they are much more important than children. This is best manifested by a clear analysis of what kinds of activities and actions young people can take on their own without adult interference or engagement. Young people are told what to do and when to do it all day long in school and in their afterschool activities where they are managed by adults who are coaches or trainers or teachers. Because of our desire to protect children who we see as helpless, most young people have little or no freedom.
A reason for that is our collective belief that they need to be protected and constantly given adult advice so they will not make mistakes. The result of this constant overbearing oversight is that young people have no opportunity to take risks, learn from their mistakes and make important decisions for themselves. When years of dependency accrues, becoming an adult who can make decisions becomes impossible. As many adults currently believe that young people in the work world are under prepared for life, one only needs to look at how the nation raises young people in every avenue of their lives.
What can be done? Adam Benforado’s latest book A minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All (Crown, 2023) does a frightening but remarkable job of describing how we can make significant changes for our youth.
He says, “Extending age-appropriate power makes sense for our schools and it also makes sense for our families. The psychological research is clear hat listening to children’s perspectives and allowing them to participate in decision-making aids in their development in terms of their self-esteem, social skills an cognitive ability. And that fits with the many studies on the benefits of authoritative parenting focusing on extending more and more autonomy to young people as they get older. Authoritative parents ( and teachers) respect their kid’s voices, ideas and beliefs and understand that the right to be wrong is part of what all humans deserve.
So how do our attitudes and beliefs influence our understanding of children? First of course has been our own experience as a child. Were you given any freedom? Were your wishes respected? Did you have time for yourself? Were you forced to join into sports or music or other activities without your permission? For most Americans, the answer is clear that personal opportunity was limited and being listened to was non-existent. Most adults have no personal experience with freedom. Our model of child rearing for the most part is still stuck in our early colonial history when children were seen as property.
But today we know so much more about children and their development even if it is ignored. If we adopt a child-first attitude things can change but this is not a request to spoil our children and do for them. It is an attitude change that places the importance of children at the center of our thinking.
The author concludes;
Prioritizing young people can help us give up the idea that everything is ours to decide, to use as we see fit, to the exclusion of everyone else. It can put us track to understand that impact of our choices, not simply on children but on future generations, on people living in other countries, on other species. Giving a thought to children can allow us to live sustainable, aware of and respectful of others. — From A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All by Adam Benforado.
Follow Adam Fletcher for a profound understanding of how important young people are to democracy.
Progressive Teachers Network 
Leave a comment