Trust me, I already plan to teach my child these things:
Drink responsibly.
Drive defensively.
Don't talk to strangers.
Lock your doors.
But I will also teach him these things.
Don't rape.
Don't drive drunk.
Don't harm others.
Don't break into other people's homes.
Imagine a world where all parents - well actually, all humans - focused most of our efforts on the second set of lessons. Maybe we might not have to worry so much about the first? What would the world look like if we invested more of our time, resources, and energy on stopping future perpetrators, rather than gearing up to blame future victims?
I blame the fact that we're not allowed to tell a kid "no" to anything these days, according to pop psychology. From my view in education, we are discouraged from posting a list of "don'ts," and instead are asked to put "please" into our requests. So it should be "please drive responsibly" or "please drink responsibly." I personally believe in the word "no" and agree that we should be teaching it this way.
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