The children speaking truth to power

Several months ago, I was having a philosophical discussion with 9–14-year-olds about environmental activism.  The young people were considering whether it was okay to strike from school to protest climate inaction.

Most of the participants were from the UK, where—despite controversial new anti-protest legislation—they can express their deeply held views without fear of serious state-sanctioned violence.

Still, some of these children spoke of their fear and distrust of the adults responsible for safeguarding their interests. One boy, Luca even expressed the worry that the UK government would respond to school strikers by imprisoning or even killing their parents.

Skye, an older child, reassured him that this was very unlikely. She pointed to the examples of other children in Western Europe, who had joined together in protest and made powerful—often philosophical—arguments in favour of climate action.

Luca’s innocent fears about the limits of his freedom to think and to speak are thrown into sharp relief by reporting by Amnesty International that children are among those who have been killed in the protests against the mandatory hijab laws in Iran, inflamed by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. And the Guardian describes the state-enforced closure of educational institutions and the arrests of children inside school premises.

To practise philosophical enquiry is to value the freedom to think, to listen, to speak, to learn and to live. Where this freedom is crushed—especially in children—we should be horrified both as pedagogues and as people.

I write this with respect for all those who find the strength to speak truth to power. But I am in awe of those young Iranians who, in that very act of rising up, often knowingly putting themselves in danger in order to give voice to their convictions, have been so cruelly robbed of their lives.