Adultism

We know that an important first step in erasing adultism is recognizing adultist tendencies in ourselves and others. Take a few moments now to think of a time when you were a youth at the same age as the youth you currently serve. Can you remember a time when adults took away your ability to make choices? What did that feel like for you/ how did that impact you? How did you respond?

I remember once I was in an after school program when I was in forth grade and we were given a choice to either watch a movie first, or have snack first. We all picked snack first and the program director started screaming at us saying we were being inconsiderate and making more work for her. It was like even though we were asked to make a choice, we choses "wrong". After that, when we were asked to make choices no one really wanted to because we were afraid to make the wrong choice. I think, from looking at it now, it showed how one person for 40 kids was not the best way to run a program. Understaffing, and underfunding creates stress and chaos. Even though the director wanted to most likely give us a choice, she probably was burnt out, and tired from years and years of running this program by herself, but it changed a safe space to make choices into a place where people were afraid to make choices. Personally, I was not effected by the situation because the director was my babysitter and I was helping her oldest daughter with a project, but if I would not have been doing that I would of been afraid of her.