Institutional Accountability to Children

Sor Juana's conflicts with religious and secular authorities reveal how institutions protect themselves from accountability while constraining individuals within them. Children are subjected to institutional power—schools, courts, welfare agencies, medical systems—yet rarely have meaningful channels to hold those institutions accountable. Institutional accountability to children means: creating genuine mechanisms for children to file complaints and see consequences, ensuring children participate in decisions affecting them, making institutions transparent about their policies and practices, and establishing independent oversight that centers children's testimony. This differs from adult-centered accountability structures that consult children as afterthoughts. True accountability recognizes children as stakeholders with standing to demand change. It requires institutions to justify practices to children themselves and to implement changes children identify. Sor Juana's tradition emphasizes that power relationships must be exposed and questioned; institutions relying on children's compliance without accountability recreate colonial power dynamics. Practical implementation includes: child-led audits of school practices, youth boards with decision-making authority, independent child ombudspeople, and institutional policies requiring regular input from children most affected. Accountability is not punishment but a democratic necessity that transforms institutions into spaces worthy of children's trust.