Is it dangerous to teach kids to question authority? What do you think? 

Most folks who survived the 1960's are familiar with the phrase "question authority." While producing a cable TV news show for kids, columnist Linda Ellerbee found that most nine- or ten-year-olds didn't know what it meant.  Some thought it meant that you should go to a police officer if you had a question.  

Now the other day I was talking to a second-grader who told me that he liked school except that the teacher made the kids stay in their seats all the time and he didn't like that part at all. When I asked why he thought the teacher did that, he said he didn't know. And when I asked whether he thought the teacher would tell him if he asked, he seemed genuinely shocked. The idea of questioning the reason behind his teacher's rule had never occurred to him.  

You see, some parents begin very early to teach their kids not to question authority, usually because they themselves were raised that way or because they're afraid of losing control. But I believe that questioning authority is usually a good thing. It has been my experience that kids who are encouraged to question authority by their parents are not the same ones who thumb their noses at authority.  

In fact, the ones with the high self-esteem and intellectual curiosity that prompt this kind of questioning are usually the ones who will end up running things themselves one day.