Our Default Position is to Do it Wrong

“Have you ever said, “Mom, Dad, Teacher, Don’t you trust me?”

When an adult hears this they might want to say, “What do I have ‘Dumb’ written across my forehead. Of Course I don’t trust you. You’re a kid, and kids aren’t old enough to know … Of course I don’t trust you. I’m a teacher. Why do you think I’m here for you?”

That’s a bit much, but we should say,

“Yeah I trust you, but I’m here with you because you need some help. Your teacher needs some help too. Because if I don’t have people I’m accountable to, if I don’t have people that I can go to, who watch me, then my default position is to do it wrong, And it’s the same for you, so we are in this together.

“I trust you I really do, you are the best kid on the face of the earth. But if you do that, you are going to face consequences.”

Remember that there are always consequences.

“Our default position, all things being equal, is to do it wrong.”

“We gotta be one with each other. We have this default thing in us, that if there aren’t rules there and we don’t keep each other accountable, we’d do it wrong.”

“This is why I worry about you.”

- Adapted slightly from Steve Brown’s Keylife Broadcast on December 14, 2005.