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06 July 2016

The Myth of "I know best!"

We are in the midst of a heated debate.  The topic being, whether children are capable of decision-making.  Most in the group were fighting tooth and nail, that we (adults) need to decide for the child, because the child is not capable of making serious decisions.  So we have to intervene.

I was of the other group stating that children, especially children in our YaR centres, are capable of decision making.  To prove this I only gave two proofs: the very fact that the child has run away from home (the decision to run away, a risk, a gamble) and to compound it the decision of the child to stay away from home!!!

As long as we (adults) stubbornly and egoistically hold on to this notion that 'I know best', children will never come on board. They will either become subservient, giving up their decision making skill and in the long run the very capability - another way of explaining 'institutionalisation' or 'making capable decision makers into impotent living beings'.  Or they will rebel, and turn out to be always opposing because that is what they grow up to know as a way of expressing themselves.


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