We have to teach kids almost everything. For instance, it’s important that they obey their mother. After all, if mother says to stop playing in the road, she’s doing so to protect the child from harm.
And that’s an example of a rule that is supposed to generalize. The child obeys mother AND father. And grandma and grandpa. And outside the family, they are supposed to obey teachers. The rule generalizes to obeying adults.
But there’s another rule, which is, “Don’t talk to strangers.” The reason behind that is obvious enough, yet it sometimes conflicts with “Obey adults.” So which rule is the child supposed to follow?
A child is walking down the street when an adult pulls up in a car. Now the child has to decide whether to talk to the person or not. At this point many would say that the child should NOT talk to the stranger. OK, but what if he’s wearing a badge? Oh, right, that’s different. But wait, what if the badge simply means he’s a security guard at the mall, and he’s a perv driving around in a rusted 1973 Gremlin? Um, that’s different. The child may have to obey the skeevy mall guy if she’s at the mall…but not outside it.
There are so many complicated situations that a small child may not be equipped to deal with, but IMO it’s important to start developing that critical skill early. Kids don’t always have time to run home and get mom’s analysis before the fact. I’d ask my kid (if I had one), “What would you do in this situation?” questions and give them feedback.
So in response to the OP, my question would be why anybody would wait until they’re teenagers to start teaching them to think for themselves.
The kind of free thinking advocated by Keating isn’t that different. There’s a standard way of doing things, but the reasons behind that standard way may or may not apply. Years ago, I was talking to a woman who drove a lot, as in, long interstate trips. She told me that if you’re driving in the middle of nowhere at night and a cop puts his lights and siren on, you don’t have to stop until you reach a populated area. Reason: a lot of rapes had been reported. People with criminal intent can buy uniforms from places that sell to police, and you can pick up on-dash red lights from mail-order, etc. According to the stories she’d heard, women would get pulled over by these police impersonators and…well, you can imagine the rest. Even the adult can fall for the skeevy mall guy’s ploy if he plays it right.